Whats the feeling?

[PATheron]

Whats everybody thinking about how good a season were going to have this spring? I know theres no way to tell but whats everybody thinking? Im thinking the sugar is going to be better becouse of lots of sun this year. Does anybody have any old wives tale things that they look at? Like the old timers saying a hard winter is coming becouse the beehives are high or theres lots of fruit on the trees, etc. Is there anything like that with sugaring? Theron

[maple flats]

We always hope for the best. I'll let you know if you ask me in May.

[Russell Lampron]

We are getting some rain now which is getting some much needed moisture back into the ground. That should help get the conditions right to start the winter. That being said it will now depend on what we get for weather during the season. Things are coming into place for it to be a good season and that is what I am hoping for.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Buy more barrels!:lol:

[red maples]

dry summer, lots of sun, wet fall...so far!!!! need good thick perma frost, then a nice snow pack late in the season and slow melt of permafrost. release the sugar and a little water. Alright then getting excited!!!! Slow down bring it back down..... OK then!!!:cool:

[Revi]

After doing sugaring in Skowhegan for 10 years I have to say that I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what will happen next spring.

I think it's the weather during the sugaring season that makes it happen.

A little south of here they had less than us, and a little north of here was bad last year, so we were in the sweet spot last year.

Since we were in the sweet spot last year I am going to predict that it will be somewhere else next year and that it will be either too cold or too warm for sugaring this year.

There. That's my prediction. That way if we end up in the sweet spot again we'll be happy, but if we don't I can say I told you so.

[mapleack]

I agree with Thompson's. Buy more barrells.

[wglenmapler]

Me thinks the season will be proportional to how much we work and time we have spent detailing our tubing systems and will be spending keeping the systems tight combined with the blessing provided by the creator. That's the formula we use. All that said--syrup made=good crop!

I always plan for a great crop, but I am happy when the bills are paid!

[Haynes Forest Products]

I believe that it depends on how ready you are. If everything is ready and your standing around with the wood shoved in the fire box and family looking at you the sap will never come soon enough.

Now if your like me and you travel 1200 miles and pass other producers with steam coming out the couplas. you unlock the sap shack the next morning and start cleaning and the sap in the trees waiting its always a good year:)

[3rdgen.maple]

Well Gents all I can say is the weather for me has not been normal or the same as most areas. I received 16 inches of rain in June and July. August was just above normal rainfall and so far in October out of the 8 days it has rained 6 of them with one storm totaling 4 inches. So what does that all mean? Almost identical weather pattern a last year and It was my worse season EVER. So with all that said Im going into the season with the theory it is gonna be the second worse season ever here and if its better than that
I will be thankful.

[ennismaple]

Been married long enough to accept the things I cannot change - and what Mother Nature has in store for next season is no different. Be ready and take what she gives you. You can miss 10% of your season per day if you're not ready soon enough so we plan to tap a bunch of our CV spouts early (end of Feb) so we don't miss anything.

...and we are buying more barrels! Gotta be and optimist or you don't last long farming.

[Hurry Hill Farm]

Here's a piece I just finished on the comparisons of two similar seasons with drastically different results!!!!! fyi Hurry Hill is in NW PA near Edinboro,PA What makes good syrup? MUD and SNOW DURING the season!!


"What happened to the 2010 Hurry Hill Maple Syrup season?"

Let’s first look at a previous season – 1996 - and even though it started similar to 2010 – it ended dramatically different.
In 1996, Hurry Hill had made only 12 gallons of syrup prior to March13.
Here’s the maple syrup data from March 14 through April 1, 1996.

355 gallons of maple syrup were made in less than three weeks – from March 14 through April 1 by boiling only 11 days.

March 14 70 gallons
March 15 28 gallons
March 17 29 gallons
March 18 23 gallons
March 21 30 gallons
March 27 40 gallons
March 28 35 gallons
March 29 29 gallons
March 30 30 gallons
March 31 30 gallons
April 1 1 gallon

There was lots of cold weather and snow in February and the first two weeks of March.

The 1996 sugaring season began March 13 when temperatures rose and the weather fluctuated between freezing nights and thawing days. The sap began to really run.

Generally, each season has one big run lasting several days and accounts for 1/3 of the season’s take. 1996 saw two big runs – one beginning on March 13 and lasting through March 18 and the other beginning March 26 and ending on March 31.

In 2010, Hurry Hill did not even tap because the weather was never favorable – no fluctuation between freezing nights and thawing days after the snow melted enough to get into the woods on March 13, 2010. Here’s the story.

On Saturday, February 20, 2010, there was 2 ½ feet of snow at the sugarhouse – we used a snowmobile to go back to the woods and measure it. Only one sugarmaker we knew had already tapped – Triple Creek - with tubing and on snowshoes. On February 26, 27, and 28, 2010, another 3 feet of snow fell!! Now we have over 5 feet of snow AND in a “normal season” we should be ½ the way through the sugaring season. We did not even attempt to go to the sugarhouse to measure the snow. Triple Creek was now shoveling snow to get to their main lines and drop lines – again on snowshoes.

From March 1 through March 9, the weather looked favorable, almost ideal, for sugaring and the sap to run – BUT it did not run. Why? Too much snow. The ground and air were cold because of the snow pack and the trees didn’t warm up enough to run. The snow did begin to melt and by March 13, we were down to 1 ½ feet of snow in the woods. After surveying the woods by tractor, I looked at the long term forecast. Unlike 1996 when the season was nearly perfect for 11 days beginning March 13 – freezing nights and thawing days – March 13, 2010 through the end of March began the warmest March on record, ever. Here’s what March looked like.

March High Low Temperature
1 39 22 5 feet of snow in the woods – too deep to tap
2 29 23
3 39 21
4 38 20 Very cold snow pack during this period
5 32 16 good fluctuation of temperatures, but snow pack kept the woods cold
6 40 16 sap ran very little
7 44 26
8 48 26 Last day/night of fluctuating temperatures
9 46 32 BIG warming trend at night begins and lasts until March 25
10 62 38 Very BIG snow melt
11 64 44 Very BIG snow melt
12 56 41 Very BIG snow melt
13 51 35 1 ½ feet of snow in the woods. BUT NO FREEZE IN SIGHT
14 44 33
15 43 31
16 53 30
17 55 34
18 59 38 During this period of warm days and nights, the trees
19 65 38 do not have the internal pressure to “push” sap out a
20 56 35 tap hole. Trickling sap goes the leaves for bud production.
21 55 40
22 54 39
23 39 31
24 54 34
25 45 25 First freeze since March 8
26 34 20 Last free
27 49 33
28 51 37
29 46 31
30 47 32
31 65 30



Burton Kimball, a NW PA sugar maker of many, many decades, was asked,
“Well, Burton, what do you make of this season?” Burton put his thumbs in his trademark suspenders and replied, “Well, can’t say I’ve seen worse!!”

[danno]

Last two March's - No, zero, zip snow in this area. Unheard of!

winter 2010/2011 Long range forcasts (not that there worth a ___) for Eastern US - warm beginning of the winter, thaw in Feb. (early tapping), cold/snowy march (that means still making syrup in April. CV's will get us from Feb thaw through April. I'd take that.

[Brokermike]

that sir is why I plan on running vac this year.

Vroom vroom bring it on!

[PATheron]

I wish I took better notes but our temps and weather was very similar to the Northwestern Pa weather. I tapped in January and made a little syrup from an early run. Made very little syrup in February. We didnt have that much snowpack but it acted very similar. First it was too cold to run then the temps got pretty good but it wouldnt run becouse of the snow in the woods. Once the ground got thawed out so it would run it just went warm. We made syrup here last year on raw vacuum alone. That was it. Without the vacuum pump here it would have been a non season. Even with imperfections in my system, which have been corrected now, the vacuum gave us a quart per tap with no favorable weather conditions whatsoever. I was picking up sap a week and a half after the last freeze in 70 degree weather. Who ever thought of using vacuum for syrup production was an absolute genious. Theron

[PATheron]

Hurry Hill- I love your record keeping. That was real interesting to read. Do you have any other years that are kind of out of the ordinary? Theron

[TapME]

Hey Theron, I want to know why no one has done a study on the sugar content of trees and the color of the leaves. It would be cool to know. As for what do I think, it's been a an different kind of year all around. I'm going into this year expecting the unexpected.

[PATheron]

I dont know if there is any connection there or not. I think the leaves are brighter if its dryier? If its dry more sun, more sugar?

[red maples]

it has been a dryer year here but the colors don't seem to pop like last year and we had a very very wet year. the colors are almost a little brownish here. alot more yellowish brown and light orange not alot of deep orange and red too.

[3rdgen.maple]

I can second that red. Been extremely wet this year and last year and the colors both this and last are amazing.

[Cardigan99]

Hurry Hill.. Intersting difference between the two years you show. When the season starts here in Central NH there's between 3 and 4 feet of snow (we're pretty high up). We always set taps first week of March on snowshoes. The big difference in flow here is the wind as far as I can tell. Last year we got less than 5 gal of sap per tap on gravity (<1800 gal on 380 taps). We had 8ish gal per tap in '08.

[Revi]

I think we might have to add vacuum. Last year we were in the perfect place with warm days and freezing nights, but this year we could be above or below that sweet spot.

We have been thinking of doing it for years.

We'll see...

[Brian Ryther]

I came across this tonight in a book titled "The Maple Sugar Book" by Helen and Scott Nearing (1950.)

An "Indian rule to predicting the character of the sugaring season.If the Maple leaves ripen and turn yellow, and the buds perfect themselves so the leaves fall off naturally, without a frost, then there will be a good flow of sap the following spring; but if there is a hard frost that kills the leaves and they fall off prematurely, before the bud is perfected, then we may look out for a poor yield of sap."

The Native Americans were doing this long before we were. They have many generations of experence and observation to collect information from.

[Parker]

Dont know but I think it comes down to what the weather is during the season and not missing any of the runs,Yes sugar content has something to do with it, But, even in poor years I know a bunch of people that make 1/2 a gallon per tap or better,,,,,I know I have missed alot of runs in the short time I have been sugaring due to not being ready in time (last year was a perfect example of that) and vacuum pump problems....FUNDEMENTALS!!!! .....and in the end their was no one but myself to blame.....The people that make alot of syrup per tap are READY befor it runs and their lines are TIGHT and OVERSIZED...Their pumps are OVERSIZED and dont turn off!!! and they dont miss a drop.....imho

[danno]

Well Brian - I'd say we lost 1/2 naturally and 1/2 by frost, but surprisingly not many to high winds this year. So by Indian lore, I guess we can expect an average year;)

[Revi]

I am going to predict that I have no idea what the season will be like. It was a little dry here in the summer, but it is making up for it now. Lots of sun may have helped those sugar factories in the leaves to store lots of energy for next spring. We'll see.

[PATheron]

Brian- Id say all ours came off naturally becouse I dont ever remember a heavy frost and then they all fell off like they do afterward. Maybe thats a good omen. Sure would be fun to just have a good old fashioned good season. Theron

[Revi]

The weather guy here in Maine predicted a cold winter with slightly less snowfall. Around 64" in Bangor. He said that with El Nino moving on we'll be back to a normal winter.

I'll bet we'll start here some time in March this year.

That's all I'm predicting.