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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.
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 ˝ 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 ˝ 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 ˝ 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 ˝ 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!!”
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.
that sir is why I plan on running vac this year.
Vroom vroom bring it on!
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
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
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.
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?
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.
I can second that red. Been extremely wet this year and last year and the colors both this and last are amazing.