Sugar time

[dominiquer60]

Anybody else smell sugar around the corner?

We are gearing up for the season by sawing out some board and batten for our sugar house in progress. I posted a picture of our Ireland mill in the gallery. The warm weather we had the last couple days has us thinking about tapping soon. We are hoping to have a better season than last years week of sugaring. Our customers are chomping at the bit for some syrup, we sold out last spring as quick as we could bottle it.

Any predictions for weather or yield this season?

Erika

[jac]

Over here we have a traditional breakfast called porage… oatmeal brought to the boil in milk and simmered for a while.. anyway.. it is usualy served with salt but this morning I poured some maple syrup on and WOW!!!!!.. may have found a new way to strengthen the Anglo/American relations:D…
John

[dominiquer60]

If we eat it for breakfast, it can have maple on it, oatmeal, cereal, fruit, waffles, pancakes, yogurt, you really can’t go wrong. I even encourage my bacon or sausage to mingle with it on my plate. I have a terrible sweet tooth and now that Maple is found to have a good level of anti-oxidants, I really don’t hold back:)
Erika

[Mark Cowdrey]

In our little (850?) operation we came up with the term “Big Sap” for a really good run a couple years ago. Probably that wonderful Light year, ’08. Well yesterday one of my sugarring partners said this year he is looking for a “sapastrophy”! Yeah we’re definitely thinking about it.
Mark

[Rick Alger]

For us in Coos County sugaring starts around mid March. Feels like it might start early this year.

I like your sawmill. Looks similar to our Lane. Was yours made in Barre VT?

[mitchmaine]

hi erika,
27 degrees here yesterday. suns higher and with the roadsalt, the roads were looking a little wet, and some water was running off the eaves on the south side of the barn and i heard some crows and i got that same feeling you got. i think we are gonna make it.
john, as far as porridge and mush, i had to eat that stuff every morning of my life and if i didn’t finish, my grandmother fried the rest up for supper. and i swore if i lived through it i’d never eat another bowl ever. ironically, it probably is one of the reasons i survived, and now i like it again, but can’t for some reason eat it every day. ha, here’s to cornmeal, oats and longer shadows.

your friend, mitch

[jac]

Mitch I had the same thing when I grew up.. tho it wasnt fried if I didnt eat it all. We had porage 6 days a week.. Sunday was the only day off. I too went off it in my twenties but seem to have taken a liking to it again… mabey our taste buds are shot as we get older:D.. best regards from your Scottish friend..
John

[dominiquer60]

Rick,
Our Ireland #6 was made in Norwich, NY. My father in law says that they moved to Cayuta, NY. There was a guy there that had some of the old molds and would cast pieces for folks. Our original mill was struck by lightning and burnt down in the 90’s. They found the current mill in Phoenicia, NY and moved it here and milled and built the new shed around it.

Mitch,
a couple days of snow that slushes instead of squeaks is certainly a triggers the itch. Last year some neighbors had a good run the end of January, but we were done by mid march, too warm too quick. It was nice this year to experience a real winter my first time home for all of it, ending it with a big sap season would be awesome.

Off to cut some spinach!

Erika

[harvey]

Lots of snowhere got over most of my lines at christmas but have more to do now since wind and more snow ,hard to get much of a road broke no frost. MIGHT be a hard sugar season in NOVA SCOTIA HOPE U ALL HAVE A GOOD SEASON.

[Ed Thayer]

We will need snow shoes for sure this year to tap. They are forcasting another foot or so of snow and then cold air again by the end of the week. I was able to get over most of my lines before the heavy snow set in so I am ready when the weather breaks. I do not like collecting on snow shoes, I hope some melting takes place before the season really gets going.

Looking forward to a good year and hope the best for all of you.

Ed

[goodcompanion]

@jac 24265 wrote:

Over here we have a traditional breakfast called porage… oatmeal brought to the boil in milk and simmered for a while.. anyway.. it is usualy served with salt but this morning I poured some maple syrup on and WOW!!!!!.. may have found a new way to strengthen the Anglo/American relations:D…
John

Funny, when I lived in Australia as an exchange student I tried to talk my host family into trying maple syrup (sent from the US) with their “pikelets” (mini pancakes. They were…underwhelmed. Vegemite more to their liking…

This post reminded me of John Seymour, on porridge:

“Eat porridge with milk or cream, and salt: never with sugar, which is a beastly habit, and not what porridge is about at all.”

Much as I love the work of Seymour I have nevertheless succeeded at coming to terms with my beastly colonial nature. Sugar, particularly maple sugar, is a fine thing on ones’ porridge.

[Ed Thayer]

We spent some time today breaking trails to the trees on snow shoes and hoping we get some melting soon, Gonna be tapping this coming weekend. It is time.

[mitchmaine]

hey ed, buckets or tubing? looks like warm weather this week. noaa says 40 degrees on thursday, maybe. i think i’ll sort out the sugarhouse. bought a new arch and need to brick it in and ste up the stack. boil a little water in the pans to clean everything up. sure seems early but thats exactly what i said last year today.

best wishes and good sugaring, mitch

[dominiquer60]

We almost lost our sugar house because of the snow load. After a good shovel, some chains and jacks, we were able to get her back in place. Dale has gotten siding on the north side so far. It is currently 40 degrees as I type. Dale has decided to move the arch back into the sugar house and try to get a line dug out tomorrow. We still need to saw out more siding, but we can do that as we go, better to get sugaring first. After all we sugared for the entire week long season last year with no sides at all, one side has got to be better than none:) Good bye long nights of winter, here comes the sugar.

Erika

[bburgess]

While Kentucky is not usually associated with maple syrup, some thirty odd years ago my dad became interested in it. For as long as I can remember we’ve been tapping trees and boiling down syrup. I don’t think we get near the yield that the northern states enjoy, but it still turns out some fine stuff. We just make enough for ourselves and a few good friends.

I put in 40 taps today and the trees were running better than normal. In about eight hours I had brought in 51 gallons of water. For a small operation like ours, it keeps me hopping.

Hope everyone has a fun and productive season.

Ben

[Author]

Posts