The Sweet Signs of Spring

The signs of spring arrived this week, and we are grateful. I did outdoor farm chores without a heavy jacket. It’s light out at 6am and 5pm. It was warm enough to turn on the vacuum in the sugar orchard and spend the day checking for system leaks. We moved snow out of drainage areas around the farm to allow water to move. The sun felt warm and motivating.

Looking back, we’re also grateful for a seasonably cold and snowy stretch of winter. The consistent cold maintained frozen ground and kept things predictable around the farm. Large fluctuations in weather are bad for managing snow/ice/water and hard on our cattle. It was nice to have a ‘real’ winter for awhile. It provided a recreational escape to skiers, snowmobilers, ice fisherman, hikers, and more. Considering COVID-19 restrictions, we all needed our version of an outdoor escape. Snow and cold allows maple sugaring season to be on a more normal schedule. We like it when we spend February in our sugar orchard preparing for the season rather than scrambling to take action during a surprise warm up. As March arrives, we welcome the signs of spring with open arms. We’re ready…

2021 open sugarhouse weekends. Covid precautions in place.

After the surprise shutdown of the 2020 maple season, we’re so ready to finally welcome visitors to our new sugarhouse location. We’ve spent a lot of time pondering how to open safely to protect our family and our customers. Fortunately, our new location offers lots of space inside and out, running water, heated retail room, and multiple exits. The plan is to be open every weekend in March for our usual open sugarhouse activities. Hours will be 10am till 4:30pm each weekend day. Masks are required. Guests are asked to use a specified entrance and exit. Tours will be provided, as always, but we may abbreviate things to keep people moving through in the busy times. We’ll strive to limit capacity to ten people inside our evaporator room or store at any given time. We ask that our customers do their part, and we will do ours. Let’s give ourselves an outing to look forward to! Visit our Events page and social media pages for the latest info.

making more maple syrup than ever

Our maple operation is growing in more ways than just a new sugarhouse. Historically, we tapped trees on owned forestland in Newport and hauled it to our sugarhouse in Sunapee. Prior to the ‘98 ice storm, we also tapped a large section of owned forest land in Wilmot. Due to extensive storm damage, we pulled the tubing and let the woods in Wilmot recover. We’re still considering going back to Wilmot, but for the past decade, we operated at approximately 1300 taps in Newport and purchased small amounts of sap from a few neighbors. From that, we’ve been making 600+ gallons of syrup in a good year. Going into the 2021 season, we had the opportunity to take on a new leased sugar orchard in Lempster known as ‘Dodge Hollow’. For the 2021 season, we have 2,500 taps from a combined 30+ acres of forestland. If all goes well, we should make nearly 1,000 gallons of maple syrup. Hopefully, Mother Nature is kind and we keep the operation running without too many glitches.

With the addition of ‘Dodge Hollow’, we spent quite a bit of time in the woods fine-tuning the layout of sap lines and collection tanks. We’ll utilize a remote monitoring system so we can keep an eye on temperature, vacuum pressure, and sap tank levels from afar. We already have a camera system set up in our Newport woods in order to limit driving back and forth when its not necessary. All of these plans will save us time and mileage during the season.

Although the snow was deep at times, the long stretch of cold weather gave us the opportunity to pay attention to the details in the woods. We took our time to tap and make any repairs or layout changes. Every detail helps when the sap starts running!

settling in to our new space

The sugarhouse also required its share of attention. Over the past year, we’ve been slowly completing interior construction. The retail space finish work looks amazing, and we’re spending the last couple weeks setting up shelves and decorating. We actually have a functioning bathroom! A joy to those of us who no longer have to drive back to the farm or find an outdoor option. We made some equipment upgrades on the production side - new canner, upgraded filter press, a finish pan replacement for the evaporator. Van did an excellent job adding wood railings to our loft storage space. Our supply rooms have shelving and organization. There’s a lot to be excited about!

Just two years ago, we made the decision construct a new sugarhouse on family land close to the main farm. At the time, we saw the many benefits to our family business but also the value it will have in our community. We welcomed so many visitors to our small sugar shack on the flats, but we were ready to offer more space and accessibility. We built this sugarhouse for our family but most importantly for YOU. We want families to have unique place to celebrate the New England tradition of maple sugaring for many years to come. In our new location, you can also take advantage of the nearby trail system for snowmobiling, hiking and more. You may even get a glimpse of our Oreo cows just up the hill.

With COVID precautions in place for the 2021 season, we hope local folks find our sugarhouse to be a welcomed escape to a long winter. Stop by any weekend in March. Smell the steam outside. Take a walk through the evaporator room. Visit our cozy new retail space. Get to know your local farmers, because we want to know you too. That’s all I’ve got for the moment. Keeping with tradition, I’ll post weekly maple season updates so followers near and far can share in our adventures!