2025 Season Update #2

Welp - predicting when to tap and what the weather will be like is certainly no exact science. We finished tapping our woods the last week of January. While we had a few small runs of sap it looks like we probably could’ve waited a few more weeks. Maybe the third week of February based on current forecast models. Why not tap early and let the woods just sit idle? Well that is because if you think of the taphole like a cut on your own body, the hole wants to start healing itself once “wounded”. We aren’t actually wounding the tree because of our healthy tapping and sanitation practices, but rather an analogy to explain the hole closing.

We did finish up with the monitoring system upgrades! The CDL system looks great so far. During the few runs that we had, it certainly helped us locate leaks very quickly. More to come on this once we get into the season.

The vendor from Memprotec, our Reverse Osmosis Manufacturer, was just down yesterday completing an upgrade to our unit. Previously, our machine would take our raw sap from 1.4-2.0 brix (or % sugar in solution) to 14-17 brix concentrate. With the upgrade of an additional membrane (3-4 post) and adding a booster pump, we should be able to consistently hit 20 brix concentrate. This will decrease the amount of time we have our evaporator running to produce syrup, decreasing our syrup/fuel ratio.