Well another first for Adams Maple Mountain. We had to pack the sap in snow to try to keep it cool this week. With the weather acting like late May, we are desperately trying to preserve what little sap we now have. We had another good run yesterday, collected 310 gallons before the torrential downpour held us back. We left our collection buckets full of sap in the woods when the rain hit. That will have to be dumped out now. Greg bottled another 6+ gallons yesterday before calling it a night. Crazy weather might give us a “no sap” Maplefest. Hopefully we will be boiling – if not we may be pulling taps! Who knows what is next in the weather front. For now, the sap in on snow!
Greg, Kevin and Ralph are putting snow around the sap, and covering it to keep it cool. 
Well it was an interesting weekend. The sap was so hardened from Friday’s cold snap that it was 5:00 p.m. before it started to run on Saturday. Over 30 people showed up to help and we only collected 45 gallons. The wind blew from the north and it was a very cold day overall. But, we made the best of things and enjoyed family, friends, food and fun.
By Saturday evening the temperatures were warming nicely and the wind died down. The sap ran all night. By morning the buckets were running over. We had a skeleton crew collecting sap on Sunday. The morning crew collected 620 gallons of sap between 8:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. The evening crew collected 400 gallons of sap! A thousand gallon day – I think it’s a record. We had about 15 people around Sunday evening to help. The day was magnificent with warm temperatures and sun. We were able to sit by the bonfire and be outside all day. We roasted a venison tenderloin and made pancakes for dinner. A good weekend after all! Greg will need to get all the sap boiled down, as the temperatures are going to be too warm to hold it over until next weekend. More later – and photos too.
Our group of visitors on Saturday – not all present are pictured.
Friday was cold at the maple cabin. Temperatures did not get past 29 degrees all day. Ralph and Mark came to dump buckets in the afternoon. Tools were required for Friday’s dumping. 
We had to use hammer handles to poke through the ice and get to the sap. We collected 125 gallons of pure sap. It was a job tonight.
Greg boiled sap all day and finished 3 gallons and a quart. He has a bit more to finish and now the new sap to boil as well.
We are looking for warmer weather coming tomorrow and more sap!
Greg also invented a new toddie! It has warm partially boiled sap, crown royal whiskey and cream. He is calling it Adams Maple Mountain Mini Beers! It was so smooth and good. I am sure it will be a new favorite around the evaporator. 
Syrup – finally! Wow, I dare say this is the lightest syrup we have ever made! And, keeping with tradition, we had pancakes this morning with our first syrup of the season! I bet you can just taste this delicacy looking at the photo. It is so smooth and buttery! I actually ate two extra pancakes this morning – but then did extra time on the treadmill to burn it off. It was worth it.
Greg worked hard all day yesterday boiling and made 8 gallons of syrup. He has another 6 gallons to finish. We had a bit of snow last night a cold temperatures today will give us a nice freeze for tomorrow’s run. It should be the perfect sap day tomorrow, so join in if you would like. We are always glad to have visitors at Adams Maple Mountain.
The sap is running this week! Greg, Ralph, Mark, and Kevin (not cousin, but his friend), collected 560 gallons yesterday! Greg will start boiling this morning. We had storms last night – rain – and very warm temps Tuesday and Wednesday. We should have our first bottling today!
The sap ran pretty well all things considered! We did not get 14 inches of snow like our neighboring community did. Thank God for that. We did not have a sap run on Sunday. So the weekend total is 295 gallons! Greg boiled all the sap and has a batch of syrup ready to finish. He did not bottle any this weekend. Just getting started. We have been averaging 74 gallons a year. Greg is hoping for at least 50. More after the next run… keep following!
A good weekend overall. Sunday brought a more calm weather day with sunny skies. Very cold though, 18 degrees at noon. The crew gathered 75 gallons of sap yesterday. Greg is boiling again today, but has yet bottled any. He wanted to get all the sap from the weekend boiled as it looks like a perfect week coming up! By the weekend we should have plenty more to boil. Have a good week – I’ll update soon.
We had a nice sap run yesterday. We gathered 220 gallons of sap! The skies were cloudy and it was spitting rain; but a winter storm was heading our way, and we thought it best to get them dumped. Greg started boiling this morning. Blain and crew are coming out soon, and Greg called to say that he had lots of company at the cabin. They were going to try to gather a bit more today. We did get hit with bad weather last night and today it is nasty. Windy and snowy. More later!
Happy Birthday to Blain! He is 27 years old today. Wow! That means we have been making syrup for 17 years. We did not have a sap run this week due to winter weather hitting the area. We had a couple of storms this week, and another expected late tonight and tomorrow. We are hoping for a run today as the temperatures are expected to be in the high 30’s. It remains to be seen whether or not it will yield enough to start a boil. Crazy weather this year! Mark your calendar’s for Maplefest 2012 on March 17th.
Tapping day 2012 was a big success. 18 people gathered for the tapping of the maple trees. With the help of the young boys, the chore went quick. The boys had an afternoon break to do a little rabbit hunting as well. Afterward, we all went to Autumn’s for dinner. Dave and crew did a great job of getting us all served together! A great day under sunny skies and temps around 30 degrees. Perfect tapping day! Since I had to work – we have Graceanne to thank for the photos this year. Thanks a million Grace! Click on the photo to see all the day’s photos.
adamsmaplemountain 