Site Discussions

The short answer to your questions is yes they all run at (roughly) the same time, and no, don’t pull them yet. There’s no harm in leaving them tapped and you might get lucky and have another run when the weather cooperates.

I got some on February 1st and for a few days after (earliest ever), then it shut down for a couple of weeks, came back strong, but I think we are done now. Hell, it’s tee shirt weather. In a generation we will be collecting palm oil.

Do all Red Maples produce sap at the same time?  We have some producing sap and others are not.  Should we pull the taps from the ones that are not producing or do we give them more time?

I was able to identify a young southern sugar maple, or Florida maple in my yard today (early March) because it still has papery bleached leaves firmly clinging on. I don’t remember maples in my yard ever doing this. Right now all the other maples are bare. My hunch is that this particular maple is growing near a beautiful beech and is jealous!

Thank you for the great article and comments.

The sap should all taste watery and nearly flavorless. Maple sap tends to average around 2 percent sugar, so it’s 98 percent water. The depth of the hole should not affect flavor.

We have a six foot stockade fence around our back yard. In the fall around dinner time, my husband was out cooking on the grill, I was pulling weeds out of the garden, as I stood up I saw a huge plume of a skunk tail about 2 feet from where he was cooking. I screamed “Skunk”. He very slowly backed away, the skunk never sprayed. Now that winter is here, we have been smelling skunk scent almost every morning from our basement bulkhead -  frequently the smell resonates into our kitchen upstairs. We do not see any large holes around the bulked. We do have a shed, near the fence, but do not smell anything in that area. Looking for advice. Thanks

Thanks for this article, which explains one of the subtle pleasures of a winter woodland trail.

Great to get your report. The gap between your 1st report and this one had me concerned. Now I see that you have been busy. I look forward to your reports and your style of writing about the sugarbush. Keep it going! Keith

Hi, this is our first time tapping , we couldn’t tell if a couple of the trees we tapped were sugar or what, but the raw sap from a couple trees have a barky taste while the rest have really no taste. Did we drill the tap holes too deep or do different tree sap taste different? I hope I’m making sense.

Beautiful. And what a year. So lucky you are to live where what you did can be done, and to have land. Such good fortune amidst the sadness

With love, appreciation, & respect,

rr aka two

For information on home burials in New Hampshire, go to http://www.nhfuneral.org/Home-Burial.html. Thanks for the lovely story.

I have a butternut tree on my rental property in East Barre area. It produced a ton of nuts this past fall and I’ve collected them in an overflowing milk crate. I’m thinking of trying to start a few but not sure what to do with the rest ... If anyone wants some contact me asap.

Ian in California,

I use a real thinned down mix of about 50-50 for the first coat of oil to turpentine; let it soak into the surfaces of wood in the axe eye and wedge.  Subsequent coats are thinned much less, maybe 5 to20 percent thinner, or none at all on a hot day. 

With less thinning, let the oil stay on the wood, but wipe off excess after about 20 minutes.  This way you get good drying and the finish is hard, not “gummy”. 

Many coats are good, then as needed over the years.

Ross Morgan

oh my god and please people, stop hitting your mauls/axes with sledge hammers to drive them through. THIS IS DANGEROUS!

The steel of both axes/mauls and hammers is hard and brittle,  striking the two together can easily send shards flying that could injure you or people around you.

If you need to strike the back of your axe or maul it should always be done using a softer material than the steel of the axe. Preferably wood. This is called “batoning” and is usually done with a heavy stick or wooden mallet. Safety first! Then teamwork!

I’d like to just point out that you shouldn’t be splitting wood on the ground, anyway. It should be on a stump or another log so that when your axe or maul goes through the piece you’re splitting, it buries itself in the end-grain of the one underneath instead of in the dirt where rocks can bash up the bit.

Even a blunt maul can take on a gnarly, deformed edge with too much misuse, and a messed up bit can lead to blade deflection and injury.

25 Feb - 8, instead of 2 mourning doves at feeder today - so thanks for the educational material!

Has anyone heard the expression “Bee hopper” in reference to a person who finds hives?

I remember sugaring as a child in St Lawrence County with horse drawn wagon & buckets. Then my Father work sent us from agriculture to West Side Story. No sugaring in Central Park. I returned to my love of farm country & for 21 yrs we lived in Northern VT - yrs of sugaring, sugar on snow parties, the horses etc - your blog gives me memories to enjoy & I thank you. I look forward to reading your blog in the days ahead.

As I’m reading this article, I can’t help but wonder about the practical aspects of rot-resistant trees. I look to the species that take the longest to decay, thinking of them as good for construction material, and notice that conspicuously missing from your list are species that are known to be rot resistant: Cedar, Locust, and Chestnut(?). I’m guessing that the research is not focused on discovering the best material for construction, but isn’t rot resistance essentially what is being discussed here for academic purposes?

Would appreciate more info, if it’s available. Thanks.

My guess is that the warm temperatures weren’t the cause of your bad syrup. I’d try again and see if things are better the next run. It’s hard to say what affect the warm winter will have on the trees. The sap may be less sweet this year because of the warm December. Unless the buds break, they should be able to deal with extreme cold.