Sugaring Season

It is considered to be in the middle of sugaring season by most accounts. Typically maple syrup season starts in mid-February here in CT, and lasts up to the first week of April. But that doesn't always hold true. It could start sooner or later, or end sooner or later. You see it depends on the weather patterns and temperatures. You need to have freezing nights, and warm thawing days, in order for the sap to run in the maple tree. Even though it is sugaring season now, we don't get a sap run every day. The weather forecast doesn't look too promising for the coming days, for the weather experts are predicting no freezing nights in the near future. Not so good for us. When we have an extended period of warm days with no freezing happening, the tapped holes start to heal up and the buds start to pop on the trees, effectively ending sugaring season. All we can hope for is some more freezes coming up and making this season last a bit longer. It started later than we had hoped for, as it stayed too cold in February for it to begin "on time". Oh well, such is the life of farming. We depend on the weather, and we can't control it.
We had a successful 4th Annual Maple Festival on March 13th this year. It was raining the whole day, but not bad enough to keep everyone away. Of course, if it were nice out we would have had a bigger crowd, but we were happily impressed with the amount of people that showed up anyways. A lot of family showed up, many to help out with all the work. We served up pancakes and more, gave classes and tours, had a sugar-on-snow eat, did a recipe cooking class, story time for kids, and more. It was a busy day! We are planning on hosting a few more "Open Houses" on Saturdays for the rest of the month. We won't have a full schedule like we did for the Maple Fest, but visitors can come and watch us boil, have a tour, watch a slide show or video, and sample some maple treats!
I am still hosting many classes and tours for groups for the rest of March and a few into April as well. A lot of homeschoolers come, as well as public school classes, boy and girl scouts, and other adult or senior club groups. It's fun for all ages. There are a few available spots left on my calendar, but it is pretty full. I believe we are one of the very few sugarhouses around this area that does a complete educational class on maple sugaring. There's a bit of history, science, mathematics, business, and home-ec all thrown into one package!
Well, let's hope for some more sap to run, even though we are all craving for the warmth of Spring!