HHF 2022 maple updates - Week Five

Another successful NH Maple Month month is behind us, and March certainly went out like a lion as the weather changed last Sunday. Sunday’s weather brought wind, rain, sleet, snow while a front came through. We finished up boiling all the sap we could gather before the woods froze solid to start the week. On Monday, we barely made it into the 20s with wind chill feeling sub zero. This cold spell was a good thing - resetting the trees, giving us farmers a moment to catch our breath, and extending the maple season. Temperatures finally warmed up late Wednesday morning and then rose so drastically that we saw quite a bit of condensation build - the air was much warmer than the forest and trees. It wreaked havoc on our vacuum system. Many trees pushed spouts slightly out of the drilled holes. That meant spending a lot of time hiking through the woods to tap spouts and make sure there were no air leaks before Thursday’s big sap run started.

The sap ran through the day Thursday, overnight and all day today. Tyler and Van have been hauling sap nearly nonstop to make sure tanks don’t overflow. Over the last three days, our sugar content was only 1.37% - we like to see that number closer to 2%. Less sugar means more firewood is needed to burn off the excess water from the sap. By Thursday night, we approached 875 gallons of maple syrup this season. Today we will boil a big of sap into the evening and save this afternoon’s sap for tomorrow. We’re definitely on track to hit our 1,000 gallon season goal over the weekend. Visit us Saturday and Sunday for our final Open House of the season! We have Amber Rich and Dark Robust syrup for sale. We haven’t crossed the line into a Very Dark yet, but expect that could happen next week.

In other news… during a farm tour with a livestock 4-H group on Sunday, we discovered a newborn calf in our barn! Our mama, Gemma, caught us all by surprise by having a small bull calf on her own while we were all busy sugaring. Fortunately mom and baby did a great job, and both are happily enjoy our luxury calving suite with lots of good quality hay. Keeping with our son’s Paw Patrol naming theme for bull calves - Brooks has named this little boy Rubble. We’re expecting three more new calves from mid April through May.

maple tap count
2,500 Taps

**First Boil - February 12, 2022**
**20 boiling days to date**
**Total Sap Collected so far…**
51,655 Gallons
1.5% Sugar Average
59 Gal needed for 1 Gal syrup
**Maple Syrup Total as of 3/31**
875 Gallons
**Maple Grades**
Amber Rich & Dark Robust

Tyler thinks we have at least a week or more of maple sugaring weather ahead of us - which should make it a record breaking season at HHF. I’ll send out one more season wrap up blog/newsletter when we’ve finished out the season. As we switch into spring mode, be sure to reach out if you’re interested in local firewood delivery or our grass fed beef. Later this month, Tyler will also start contacting clients on the spring tree work schedule.