Hop Kiln Road 2023

[blissville maples]

Several contradictory signs. On one hand perfect sugaring temperatures, high air pressure, good snowpack, no tree wells, ice in the tanks, mid-season date, sap dripping from the buds and high syrup grade, but on the other hand no frost in the ground, bacteria starting to show on the tank walls, sap a little milky and poor sap runs. I suspect the ground is too warm for the trees to recharge and that the season, despite all appearances, is over. Heavy wet snow today and I pumped .6 gpt last night, what little sap we produced from Sunday and Monday meager flows. Going to boil it this morning in the storm.

I'm sure the ground is frozen under the snow, reducing sap runs. All the roots cannot suck water that's why runs are so-so. When all roots are thawed that's when the big runs start

[Hop Kiln Road]

Thought the first day of Maple Weekend was a hair slower than previous years. Sensing the consumers don't have as much to spend. The boil went okay and the cloudy sap dropped the grade to 64. Canner is acting up, the last ten gallons is turning cloudy but the temperature of the batch isn't going over 190. Probably needs a little agitation? And...I pour my S-O-S on a big SS pan on a table outside the SH. Works well if there is a herd of school kids. So I started pouring a bunch of strips between visitors when the syrup is ready and go back into the SH to do other things. Well, it disappears when my back is turned!!!

[Hop Kiln Road]

Cold and blustery Sunday. Fire pit and S-O-S were popular with the guests! Overall, more folks than last year but their spending was down. Now for the rest of the season? A couple warm days coming which will give us some tree wells and I guess we'll see if we get more sap...

[Hop Kiln Road]

Pumped 162 gal from 800 taps, which was 3 days of production. Sap ranged from clear to milky. Despite perfect conditions, the trees aren't recharging, which I attribute to the warm ground trapped under 2 feet of hard snow. Sunday night had a low of 23F and Monday a bright sun high of 42F. C'est fini. This is an above average year 110% only because I caught some of the early February run. 32% of my production was between 2/12 - 2/16. If I had been fully tapped by 2/7, it would have been closer to 150% of average. The other remarkable thing, lowest grade was 64%. Leaving the taps in for awhile until the snow goes down and the walking is easier, and, in case I'm wrong!

[Hop Kiln Road]

I live on a hilltop that looks mostly east while the maple trees slope away more toward the south. In the summer I enjoy sitting on the patio and watching the contrails as the first appear over the horizon. I can see two routes coming to and leaving the east coast, Europe from across the north Atlantic and Asia from over the top. With the aid of a flight tracking ap, I spot the jets somewhere between York Beach and Portsmouth and learn the details of their flights. While postings have diminished on the Tapping Update section of the Trader, after 16 seasons I still find it too a valuable look over the horizon, not only of the weather and a season's progression, but of knowledge and innovation. Thank you.

[cropseyvillemark]

Thank You Sir! And please keep it coming.

[red maples]

same here... If got tapped in a few days earlier I would have been closer about 150% as well ended up at about 110to 120%. still chugging along but not sure for much longer. vac pumps is still going but little sap to speak of 2.5 day total was only 225 gallons on a little shy of 600 taps. but I am just about out of snow here on the seacoast. a little left on the colder part of my woods but trees are just petering out and not recharging like you said. and sugar has really dropped as well.

[BigJon]

Hi Bruce, I’m in Boscawen, and trying to see if the season will hold out for a few more days, I’m hoping to get one more 300gal tank of sap to run before I drain my pans and boil the last of the sweet out. Tapped in on Feb 14th like I usually do, apparently I should have done it a week earlier, but that’s sugaring. Running unusually low on wood since I didn’t get enough processed this past fall, I won’t make that mistake again.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Got another 200 gal of drips by Sunday and raw boiled for some visitors to chase out the sweet. Sap was pretty cloudy but not murky and made a 28 but tasted dark. Going to use some old Grade B stickers! Going to start cutting the taps today in the bushes that don't have too much snow. Although it was a good year, can't believe how many ideal days there were without a sap flows. Still attribute it to the lack of frost. Had there been frozen ground the early February run wouldn't have been anywhere near as heavy.