We’re still going strong despite the warmest season we’ve ever had! While the freeze on the 10th did fill the trees with sap, our tap holes were too far gone to collect a meaningful amount. With a decent long term weather forecast coming, we decided to re-tap around 2/3rds of our trees from the 12-15th. Since then we’ve had two good runs with another one coming this evening. We’re definitely making commercial syrup at this point. Mondays boil had a sour sap off taste, but we boiled 12 ounces of concentrate Tuesday night and the sour sap taste was replaced with a slight buddy flavor. The color also disappeared, late season sap is usually more acidic which prevents some of the caramelization chemical reactions from taking place while boiling.

The season that started strong may be coming to an early end. We usually run until late March/early April, but this year the last sap run may have been March 5th! We’ll know for sure tomorrow evening if this weekend’s freeze is enough to rejuvenate old tap holes that just experienced a week of warm temperatures and no freezing nights. If the sap tastes good we’ll continue on, with the possibility of re-tapping later in the week if the extended forecast looks good. If the sap tastes bad we’ll throw in the towel. The trees are close to budding, which changes the flavor for the worse. Check out the picture of a small yard maple with swollen buds starting to flower. We’re currently at 90% of a crop so the season has been a success. Even with more sap than average the total amount of syrup produced has been lower due to low sugar content in the area this year.

We took a break this weekend and the boys helped us tap a black walnut tree! Not much sap yet, it may be a bit early in the year still. We’re saving what we get in the freezer and will boil it down on the stove when we have time next month, we’ll post back later with a report on the taste!