While spring is the season for cooking maple syrup, there is work to do all year long. Like other forms of farming, the off season is spent on maintenance, repairs, and improvements. Our family will use this space to share Read more…
Our maple woods do not have a lot of topography, so gravity flow is not an option. Sap is drawn from the trees under vacuum to pump houses, then is pumped to centralized storage tanks. To understand the layout, picture Read more…
Last Spring, we transitioned to a maple syrup operation that was set up with vacuum lines and included a beautiful western red cedar sugar shack complete with a traditional cupola. The shack had not been used since the lines were Read more…
Maple syrup is the product of boiling sap over heat until it reaches 7 degrees above the boiling temperature of water. While that is typically 219° F, the boiling temperature is influenced by atmospheric pressure. The amount of time required Read more…
As February approaches, the question that is top of mind for most maple syrup producers in Wisconsin is when to begin tapping trees. There are variables to consider such as weather forecast, number of trees, method of sap collection (lines Read more…
Last spring we encountered problems with mud. This is a normal part of spring in northern Wisconsin and is especially prominent when the frost begins to thaw from the ground. The downside is that mud gets tracked everywhere. Over the Read more…