Steam in Salisbury

Brought a sap bucket and refractometer to Hill with me this morning,,Tapped a tree 30' from the sugarhouse when I got there (might be a planted sweet tree) at 5pm there was 1 1/2 gallons of 3.5% sap in the bucket,,boiling it as I type...

Watch out for the wall paper its starting to peel off. :lol: :lol:
Keith

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Dosent always run when the weather is right,,remember last year? certenly have missed some runs,,but time will tell,,how many taps are you putting out this year? Plus if you tap early its over for you early,,,,,what do I know I am new at this,,,That syrup sure was good though.....Good luck to everyone...

Parker,

No need to worry, too early yet! :wink:

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Kevin--The trees will never run good with 2+ feet of frost in the ground. That was my problem last year and when the frost did finally break, it was way too warm for too long to coax any more sap. Had we gotten normal tempuratures the fist 10 days of April, I think it would have turned out a good year.

In '03 it was the same way over here. Very deep frost, more than last season. I started tapping March 14th that year and only had gathered a few hundred gallons by March 23rd. After this though, we had perfect temps. and it was a banner year for me. The frost has to break and if it don't, there ain't gonna be much sap. My neighbor who has bags has a saying: When you can't get to the trees, thats when the sap runs the best.

What he means is that its real muddy due to frost departure and thats when they RUN. Mark

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We had more frost in the ground two years ago than I remember in a long time. Probably close to a foot and it was one of the worst seasons I have seen. :?

No frost in Albion area, ground has stayed soft all winter. But we do have a lot of moisture in the ground. I agree that we cant make syrup unless we have some mud.