Another fun season is in the books!
The 2023 sugaring season was no record breaker but did meet our expectations. We taped something close to 500 trees again this season made up of about 400 maple and 100 walnut trees. By the end of March as things were wrapping up we had collected nearly 3,500 gallons of sap and produced 53 gallons of finished syrup…
…all with the help of good friends of the farm who jumped in to lend a hand. We appreciate all of you more than you can know.
The challenge this year was a warmer than usual February which delayed sap collections for more than 2 weeks. Sap does not flow much when it gets above freezing and stays there. Those days when the temperature fluctuates from the 20s at night to the 40s during the day are still the best for us.
The big change in the woods this year was a new vacuum pump on the mainline. With some good help from Sam Hines who constructed a pump house and from Steve Dunnuck who helped install the system, the new vacuum pump helped improve the sap flow from the trees to the collection tank. And that (we think) helped us maintain overall production in the face of a “so-so” season.
Back in the sugar shack, the new pneumatic diaphragm pump powered by an air compressor was the answer to a long-standing filter press performance issue. The filtering process was much better…with minimal effort.
New 12 OZ Bottles
Product-wise we’ve discontinued the 8 ounce as well as the 500 ml bottles to standardize on the new 12 ounce size. Still a nice size for a gift but lasts a bit longer at the breakfast table.
And of course, we have a fair amount of our Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup again. We have a good inventory now and just started a new batch that we’ll bottle in early November. You may recall that the aging process takes about 5 month but it’s well worth the wait.
But hey - you really don’t have to wait. Check out the Products section of the website to learn where you can purchase a bit of the "sweet life" right now!
And thanks again for following along and supporting Springboro Tree Farms.
