HHF 2023 maple updates - Early Season

"Maple Season has arrived in New Hampshire! I'll admit it snuck up on us earlier than we wanted it to, but when Mother Nature brings as sap… we make the liquid gold."

Above is an excerpt from our first newsletter of the 2022 Maple Season. It seems that we are repeating a similar thing this year! Heading into 2023, we've been working on a big maple expansion. We added 2,500 taps worth of maple infrastructure to our Wilmot woods last summer after a long hiatus since the ‘98 ice storm. Our Newport woods (1,200 taps) is still online and we’re in our third year with ‘Dodge Hollow’ (1,250 taps) in Lempster. That leaves us with a total of 4,850 taps in the woods to start the season. We also had a great opportunity to pick up sap from a friend's sugarbush in southern Newport - so off we go, collecting sap off another 2,150 tap sugarbush. The problem with more than doubling our operation is now we needed a few equipment upgrades, more capacity for hauling sap, and more employees. We're tackling this season with three trucks on the road, upgraded reverse osmosis (reduces water content of sap before boiling), efficiency upgrades in the woods, more sap tanks, and three seasonal employees.

Tapping began on January 27th as we anticipated some early February warm-ups. We kicked off our first boil at the sugarhouse on February 13th and didn't shut down again until after Friday the 24th. We had eight boils in 12 days. That's amazingly consistent sugaring weather for March, BUT WAIT… it's February! We've boiled in February before, but not to this extent. Our season total is already up to 710 gallons of Maple Syrup from 38,650 gallons of sap. Just a few short years ago, that would have been a great end of season total… we've gotten carried away with this maple addiction. So if you aren't already using syrup on everything - think coffee sweetener, baking substitutes, marinades, salad dressings, cocktails… then you better start experimenting.

The early season syrup also replenished our nearly empty shelves! Last year Mother Nature didn't let us make much Amber Rich grade, but we've got plenty on the shelves now. Open hours at the sugarhouse start on Saturday, March 4th and Sunday March 5th. We'll open every weekend in March and into April if the weather allows. Weather conditions always dictate whether we will be actively boiling - if I had to guess… it looks like the weather won't give us much sap heading into this weekend. Keep those fingers crossed for below freezing nights followed by warm days.

The good news is over the last couple weeks, we’ve had more time to prepare for the upcoming season. Since our first boil, we’ve gotten the rest of our trees tapped out. Our Newport woods is fully operational, but our Lempster woods is still not fully ready. We had some equipment issues and are in the process of installing a new vacuum pump and house - without the vacuum hooked up, we rely on gravity alone and get less sap collected. With any luck, Lempster woods will be operating at 100% before the next good sap run. We’re making great progress in the cold weather this week.

maple tap count
7,000 Taps

**First Boil - February 13, 2023**
8 boiling days
**Total Sap Collected so far…**
38,650 Gallons
1.65% Sugar Average
52 Gal sap needed for 1 Gal syrup
**Maple Syrup Total as of 2/24**
710 Gallons
**Maple Grades**
Amber Rich & Dark Robust

Stop in at the Sugarhouse Retail Shop to pick up fresh Maple Syrup in plastic and glass containers. The freezer is stocked with our own grass fed beef cuts. We've got other gifts, including NEK Grains pancake mix, stone coasters and food slabs (from Harding Hill rocks!), locally made cutting boards, HHF apparel, and more. To celebrate all things maple, we'll be serving up maple cookies, maple sugared popcorn, maple over ice cream and more delicious samples intermittently throughout the season. As always, reach out with any questions or concerns. We hope to see you soon!

ALSO - I highly encourage you to join our email newsletter community (entry form at bottom of webpage). This is our only guaranteed way of getting you all the latest info on our farm goods and upcoming events.