Most people see the change from winter to spring in the warming temperature and the blooming daffodils. Out in the forest, and here at Lutherlyn, the change is amazing!
With cold temperatures lasting two weeks longer than last year, we had two additional weeks to make maple syrup. That was a blessing as we only had a few gallons of syrup made by March 15. The cold temperatures had made syrup production pretty slow. (For maple sap to flow, temperatures inside the tree have to rise above 40 degrees Fahrenheit and fall back below freezing each day.) Although we had many days above freezing, it didn't get much above freezing.
By the end of the season, we had about 100 buckets that students had hung on the maple trees. The warm temperatures on March 10 and March 30 produced about 2 gallons of sap per tree - giving us about 200 gallons of sap to boil down after each one of those runs. With that much sap, the challenge is to boil down the sap fast enough to keep it from fermenting with the warmer temperatures. We were blessed with cooler temperatures after those good runs which "refrigerated" the sap and our sugar maker, Gordie, did a great job boiling the sap very quickly.
The last boiling halted on Thursday, April 4, with the grand total reaching 10.5 gallons of Lutherlyn's pure maple syrup being produced. All that is left is the clean-up: putting away buckets, lids, & spiles, and cleaning tubing and tanks. The biggest job is scrubbing the evaporator. The minerals in the sap are cooked out as the sap boils and they become stuck to the stainless steel pans. removing these deposits requires hot water, a weak food -grade acid, and hours and hours of elbow grease. It is the toughest part of maple sugaring, by far. Thankfully, we have 10.5 gallons of syrup to make all of the work worthwhile.
If you want to help us enjoy the syrup, join us on May 5th for Camp BLAST! We will be serving free pancakes and maple syrup from noon until 3:30 pm. The day will also include plenty of other free activities including nature hikes, hay rides, pony rides, games, rocket launches, climbing, zip-lining, canoeing, crafts, archery, and archaeology. Mark your calendars, you won't want to miss this!
