Donald Lehman
Well-known Member
Like Loren, we gathered our first sap today. The trees around the farmstead and on one southeast slope across the road averaged a gallon per tap. The second loop across the road is low and colder. We barely got 25 gallons of sap for 150 taps. The woods behind the barn is heavy woods and merging into a northern slope and those trees didn't run enough to pay to gather or have enough sap in the buckets to worry about if they freeze up. Started out cloudy and then rain, then light snow, THEN heavy snow and wind, and an hour later the sun was shining! The snow was so rotten that snowshoes were out of the question. The good thing about it is that we have the rails between the trees pretty well broken out now, so it will get better as we continue. Still we ended up with 330 gallons of sap testing 2.3 sugar content. Not a bad start anyway for us. As Loren said, the gathering conditions are lung burning brutal right now. Should lose a few pounds around the waist this year, anyway! Lol!