This morning Johan and I trudged across our berm (raised grass terrace south of the house) to put put in one tap in the south side of each of our sugar maple trees--planted by us in 1975-76. Two of the three trees are pouring out sap like crazy. On the other tree he drilled right under an old tap so maybe that's why it's not doing much. Since the snow went over our boot tops, I went out afterward with a coal shovel (forget about the snow shovel) and dug paths to 2 of the trees. This would have been impossible a few days ago, but the snow has softened. I will dig a path to the final tree later. (Johan's cardiologist will not let him dig, but I enjoy it and don't try to break any speed records). Near one tree I saw my first maple gnat. Any entomologists out there, please tell me its real name. Amazing that any insect can be out so early.
We will cook down the sap in our basement wood stove, and finish the syrup on the kitchen stove. After this Vermont winter I am hoping we'll get 3 quarts of syrup from our 3 taps. Typically in Connecticut we get about 2 quarts. We may put in 3 more taps along the driveway but that means a longer walk over our still icy driveway. Also, those trees are in the shade so the sap should flow later. We had a lot of syrup from a friend who went out of business, and since I am the main sap gatherer, it was frustrating the last time we tapped, as I got home from work after dark, with the sap frozen. But now we are down to our last half pint of syrup. In my retirement it will be a pleasure to gather the sap every afternoon. Barbara van Achterberg, Easton Connecticut USA zone 6 _______________________________________________ Alpine-l mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/alpine-l
