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| Derek, Kern, and Sue tapping |
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| Sue puts the spout on a drop line |
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| Kern drills the hole |
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| Derek taps in the spout |
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| We are always on the lookout for damage. Here, Derek fixes a bite in the tubing. |
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| Big ol' maple |
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| Sue, in her cold weather gear |
This past Sunday, we plodded through the snow and began
tapping the beautiful, bare maple trees. The amount of snow on the ground during
tapping is always something we keep in mind.
In previous years, we’ve had to drudge through deep snow, several feet
high, making hard work of an important task.
Climbing through snow up to your hips gets tiring!
After Sunday, though, the temperature
increased and we had some rain, melting a lot of the snow and making it easier
to get around the woods. Since then, the
temperatures have been frigid and ice-cold (which might be an understatement!),
but tapping has continued during the warmest parts of the day.
As of now, it looks like there will be a warm-up tomorrow, so hopefully the sweet sap will start to flow!
It's always great to see photos of how maple syrup is harvested. A lot of people really take for granted how much work they have to put into getting the syrup out of the trees. I have always thought that it would be so much fun to go up for the winter to harvest. http://blisgourmet.com/collections/maple-syrup/products/grade-b-maple-syrup
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