March 17, 2023
We pulled the taps on our sugar maples this week, bringing to an end the shortest, least productive, maple sugaring season we’ve ever had. We only had a couple good runs and the rest of the season it was either too cold, or too warm, for days on end. The temperature needs to fluctuate between freezing and thawing, but it never really did. The nights that froze, the temperatures barely warmed up during the day, and the days that did warm, it didn’t freeze at night. It’s the freeze thaw differential that creates the pressure that gets the sap flowing.
My brother who sugars in North Granby had a perfectly normal season, so go figure. Our sugar bush, which my grandfather planted over a hundred years ago, is nestled in at the base of our ridgeline. Perhaps the protection of the ridge was enough of a moderating factor to buffer the trees from the mood swings of an already mellow spring.
At 100 years old, our trees are mature and stately, and every spring we put 2-3 taps in each tree. We could probably get away with more, but it feels a bit greedy. I’d rather use a little less syrup on my pancakes than take advantage of our kindly trees!
Each tap produces about 10 gallons of sap over the 6-week season, which optimistically translates to one quart of syrup. Each tree’s sugar content is different, thus the amount of water needed to boil off varies, and the sap to syrup ratio varies accordingly. The sugar content also varies during each season, with the first run, almost always, being the sweetest. It also varies from year to year. A tap one year might make a quart and another year, like this one, only a pint.
Our buckets hold 2 gallons of sap and on a strong day they’ll overflow. We have a few buckets that are bigger, called “Sunday Buckets”, which were used when going to church took all day and extra room was needed so the bucket wouldn’t overflow.
We collect the sap every day, (including Sunday), and store it until we have enough to boil – usually about 100 gallons at a time.
The season typically lasts about 6 weeks, as that’s as long as it takes for the tree to start to close up the tap holes. We could redrill, but that also seems unfair to the tree. Even if we were willing to retap this year, the trees are already starting to bud, and once that happens, the sap loses its sweetness altogether.
This season notwithstanding, I think my grandfather would be very proud of his majestic trees, and our sugaring operation. I am, yet again, in awe of his vision and selflessness – to plant so many trees just so someone he would never have the chance to meet, might someday tap them. I wish I could sit down with him over a plate of pancakes and thank him personally. I wouldn’t even give him a hard time if he poured the syrup with a heavy hand.