Olde wives' tales about sugaring
Hey all! How many of you have heard the old trope of sticking a hunk of wood in a spile hole, supposedly to prevent bugs and infection from setting it?
My neighbour, a total sugaring noob, told me that he did that to his trees after reading about doing it on the interwebz.
Knowing his background as a paramedic, I pointed out that with a would you have to flush it out.
'Yeah', he said, 'then you pack it'.
To which I retorted: 'Yeah, with something sterile, not bits of stick off the ground.' I had clearly got up his a$$ somewhat by then, so said no more (he's now a cop lol).
Still, where did this old wives tale originate?!
Been tapping since 2008.
2018 - 17 taps/7 trees...819l sap, approx 28l syrup
2019 - 18 taps/8 trees...585l sap, 28l syrup...21:1 ratio
2020 - 18 taps/8 trees...890.04l sap...gave away about 170l, 30l snafu'd....23l total for me from approx 690l
2021 - 18 taps/8 trees...395l sap, 12 l syrup
2022 - 18 taps/8 trees....7 sugars 1 red due to #2 having surgery so had the season off....582l sap, 18.5l syrup
2023 - 18 taps/8 trees...all sugars again. 807l sap, so far approx 14l syrup