Maple sap is running strong

I saw an icicle of sap suspended from a branch like a stalactite, and knew that it was time to set my spiles and start this year’s maple sugaring.  This past weekend’s warm temperatures really got if flowing, and by Monday my two-pail sap works had produced 8 gallons — enough to make almost a quart of syrup. 

There were several inches of snow on the ground when I drilled the holes and set the pails, and most of it melted during the balmy weather we enjoyed over the weekend. As a rule, maple sap starts to flow when daytime temperatures are above freezing and nighttime dips below. The mercury stayed high but the flow was strong.  

The northern, colder tap started a bit weaker but ran harder. My tree is an old one, and I could have set a third or even fourth pail, but I am not greedy. This tree is a century old, providing shade and room to swing a hammock as well as syrup in season. I wish it many more years of health.

Tapping in mid February is not exceptionally early, though in the last 10 years I have only once started sugaring in March, and more than once things have gotten underway in late January.  Except for the unusually warm spell, this feels about right to me.  

If we have another sharp cold snap, the next batch of sap will probably produce a darker grade syrup, but I have uses for all.  The first boil usually produces the fancy stuff, and I’m thinking crepes, perhaps, or aebleskiver, those wonderful round pancakes filled with jam.

I love that first, heady face-full of maple steam. I could happily stay in a sugar house for days on end at this time of year. It is a vigorous upwelling, and my spirit rises in that vapor, the cold easing from my tired bones as the fire crackles and the syrup reduces in the pan. This is how I draw down the curtain on the dark nights and welcome the first harbinger of spring.

 

Tim Abbott is program director of Housatonic Valley Association’s Litchfield Hills Greenprint. His blog is at www.greensleeves.typepad.com. 

 

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