08 Mar Tue 2016
Just started and ended
The sugar season just started and now it is over in our neck of the woods. With the warm weather(days and nights being above freezing) it has brought an end to the 2016 tapping season here.
Surprising enough the number of gallons of sap was equal to last years run, even with two and a half weeks less of collecting. But, the brix was down--taking more gallons of sap to make syrup, that's o.k. we are thankful for what was given to us. Know to focus on the next step of the season--continue to clean up and prepare. With the warm weather we are going to do some early season planting.
In the past we always had some stuff in the ground around this time, but stopped years ago for lack of places to sell. This year there are a few places to market--so we will show off our skills of how good of farmers we are. Our neighbor challenged us to a farming duel--he is armed with ten years of gentle farming learned from books, videos, and such backed with plenty of wealth from his former job--and we are armed with trial and error, a life time of country living and living off the land(real hillbilly stuff), our wealth is based off of the sale of what we can sell.
Round one--early marketable produce judged on quality, quantity, cost of production, and profit made.
God bless and may the best farm win
P.S. we are friends most of the time with the neighbor