27 Feb Fri 2009
Update on the Sap Flow in Scotland, CT
Update on the sap flow here in Scotland, CT. (How come they did away with the old Conn. abbreviation, by the way? I was always partial to that.)
We added 10 more taps in our new sugarbush up the road and collected the sap that ran over the past 24 hours...100 gallons came in from the new taps. This is prime time for maple sugarin'! At this rate, we will have to be gathering in the morning and the afternoon. The trees here in our woods have also picked up and we gathered another 30 or so gallons. Since we're in a valley, our temperatures are always about 10 degrees below the rest of the area. Not so good for the early sap run, but great for extending the sugarin' season!
Did I mention how useful these things are?
We'll be sugaring in earnest now for the next several weeks it looks like. If you are in the area, give a call and stop on by to taste some warm maple syrup. It looks like some snow for the next few days, so we can serve it up "sugar on snow," the good old fashioned way!
Expansion
It seems like our farm grows a bit more by the day. Last week, we had a conversation about sugaring with some folks who have 100 acres on the opposite side of town. Yesterday afternoon found us setting 50 taps in their pristine sugar bush. We are now up to about 150 taps and the sap is flowing. The new evaporator resulted in the best and clearest batch of syrup that we've ever made! We bottled on Monday and we're set to start boiling again this weekend.
We've completely sold out of full CSA shares and have a waiting list for next year, so it seems. We may have a couple of half shares left, but the response to this endeavor has been stunning.
Orders for chicken coops for Spring delivery are rolling in and we are thinking of taking in more hogs as demand for our pork keeps coming in.
Speaking of expansion...We've been eyeing several fields at the end of our road as well as across the ajoining road. We are hoping to be able to come to some arrangement to perhaps lease the land, rent the land, or put in an offer to buy some of it outright to expand the farm. Of course, the sort of capital needed to buy a field is not easy to come by, but there are at least opportunities for our farm to grow right here in the local area.
Here is a link to the Google Maps Satellite image of our place. Our place is marked with the bubble "A." The fields in question are an inch or so to the North and East. Much of these are for sale.