the "sugar moon"

9:55 pm Wednesday  It's the "sugar moon" tonight - the full moon during the maple season.  Time to give thanks to Mother Earth for her gift of sap.  

Folks have been emailing or calling and asking if the "tapping" is over.  Yes, the tapping is done.  It's the first step of the sugar season that involves drilling a fresh hole in each sugar maple and gently tapping a spile into the hole so that we can collect the crystal clear sap.

The maple season is well underway.

But from our viewpoint, there is lots of season to come.  The sap will make great syrup as long as the trees don't bud.  And forecasts indicate that budding might not happen until well into the middle of April.

We've boiled 6 times.  We're expecting quite a few more.  We're waiting for warm temperatures to thaw the trees so that the sap will run.  

Patience.