Turtle Lane Maple Farm

A group of approximately 20 will come out from Andover for an evening tour.

Several members of the North Andover Senior Center will join us.

A group of about 19 boys and 11 parents will join us for an afternoon tour.

The perfect weather for sap flow is daytime temperatures in the 40’s and overnights below freezing. As of Friday last week the forecast had 8 of 10 days meeting this criteria, so in anticipation we put in nearly 400 taps this weekend. However, the forecast has now changed and it looks like only Monday and Tuesday will have sap flow with some colder weather coming in for the remainder of the week. We’re getting antsy for the season to begin, and look forward to the upcoming weeks in March!

This weekend was a bit different as we focused on Steven’s Estate.

On Saturday Paul’s dad, Buster, came out with us in the field. Paul’s mom, Maxine, stayed at the house for two hours and played with the kids. During the two hours, the three of us were able to run a fair amount of new mainline. We took a different path this year deeper in the woods which allowed us to pick up an additional 44 taps in a small sugar maple grove on the Southern portion of the estate and just West of the tote road. Interestingly, the beginning of this run comes within feet of the beginning of the Cullen Estate run, because each run starts at the top of a hill and run down each side respectively. We started with running 12 gauge high-tensile wire strung a long distance between two trees. The wire is tightened by using gripples and inline strainers at each end of the wire. When we say the wire is tight, we mean the wire twangs like a guitar string when you hit it. It must be in order to hold all the weight of the 1/2″ mainline pipe filled with maple sap, and not sag or loose its pitch (2 to 3 degree down sloping angle).

On Sunday we went back out to Steven’s Estate for a couple hours, to begin to tie in trees at the beginning of the mainline to the manifolds on the mainline. This is done through the use of “lateral lines”. These smaller (5/16″) lines string through the woods from tree to tree making their way down hill till they reach the 1/2″ mainline. Think of these as roads to a highway. At some point we will be putting a more descriptive overview of the tubing process on the website. With some trees that are somewhat below the topology of the mainline, we needed to use a 6′ step-ladder and string latteral lines higher up the trunk so that the line still runs down towards the mainline at about a 4 to 5 degree pitch. We ran lateral lines to about 12 trees, but did not tap.

Since Monday was a holiday, we took the opportunity to go out again despite the rain. Yes, even when it is miserable out, we go out and work because it won’t get done otherwise. Luckily, it was a light rain so it wasn’t so bad to work in. We finished running the lateral lines through the woods. We also ran a length of mainline through the grove of sugar maples on the back lawn to the tank area of the other mainline run. Unfortunately we ran out of daylight, so we have about an hour or so worth of work in order to finish the lateral lines in the small grove area.

At Steven’s Estate there are also three separate trees that won’t be connected to mainline due to their location. So they will have a 5 gallon bucket or small tote next to the tree to collect the sap. We will install these when we tap as these are easy to do.

We not ready to tap yet as it is too early in the season, but running the lines before hand really helps spread out the work.  And at this point you can probably begin to appreciate how much work there is to do.  Remember, this is just 116 out of 500+ taps!

We will be traveling to Growing Places Preschool in Lee, NH where Paul’s daughter Kaleigh attends school to give a presentation to approximately 34 preschool aged children and their teachers.

Hello Everyone!!

We have a very unique and exciting opportunity this year that will most-likely never happen again, and we would like to extend you an invitation to join us at this special occasion.

Each year the Mass. Department of Agriculture along with the Mass. Maple Association select a sugar house to host the Maple Month Kick-off. This is a festive event where state and local politicians as well as members of the Association and other invitees come for a ceremonial, old-fashioned tree tapping and the signing of a proclamation by the governor that “March is Mass. Maple Month.”

We are excited to announce that this year our sugar house was selected to host this unique event! We are hopeful that the governor or the lieutenant governor will be attending. Many of North Andover’s selectman and town officers will be there, as well as several state representatives and officials. We have also invited many third grade students to represent the five elementary schools in North Andover.

This should be a relatively big event considering we are the closest fully operating sugar house to Boston. We are about 15 minutes off of 95, 93 and 495, so we are conveniently located from almost everywhere.

There will be a variety of maple related foods and snacks, donated by various businesses (hopefully more to come):

• Butcher Boy Market (maple creme filled cupcakes)
• Mad Maggies (TLMF maple walnut ice cream & waffle cones with vanilla ice cream and drizzled maple syrup)
• The Loft (maple glazed pork loin)
• Eatz Restaurant (pecan waffles & regular waffles)
• Perfecto’s Caffe (maple french toast coffee & regular coffee)
• Mass Maple Association (maple cotton candy)
• Turtle Lane Maple Farm (mini-pancackes & syrup, maple cotton candy, sugar on snow)

As always, the public is welcome to come anytime when we are boiling (posted on our website) for a free tour; to learn, to taste and to have fun.

Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested, we would like to share this with as many people as possible.

Here is a link to the official invitation, we would appreciate if you could RSVP so we can get an approximate headcount for the event and food.

Looking forward to seeing you,

Paul and Kathy
info@turtlelanemaplefarm.com

As you go past the old farm off to the left at Edgewood, and go up the hill towards the Cullen Estate, you will now see two runs of mainline, one on the right and one on the left. It was an interesting day as it was nice for most of the day with a slight breeze. But at 3pm we were hit with a freak white-out. We watched a wall of snow travel up the field as we ran to the pickup truck just in time as it hit us. The white-out lasted about 12 minutes and then we were able to continue working. Such is the way when working with Mother Nature.

The run on the left as you go up the hill has 10 trees (some Silver Maple but most Sugar Maple), all having 4 taps each. There is some wind damage on two of the trees, but the crowns are full and so we will focus on the parts of the tree that are unaffected vertically to the healthy parts of the crown.

The run on the right as you go up the hill as 8 trees (again some Silver Maple but mostly Sugar Maple), all having 4 taps each.

Again, we haven’t tapped but just running the lines in advance.

And just as a matter of opinion, to counter the treachery of snow, wind and cold, we have to say that this area is some of the most beautiful in North Andover. We suggest that the community go and explore these areas and experience some of nature’s best in your own backyard.

The season is approaching fast! Today we ran our longest run of mainline (1/4 mile). It is on the old Cullen Estate, on the tote road that connect Steven’s Estate and Edgewood. It has 25 great old sugar maple trees that we believe were planted around 150 years ago (just our guess based on size). We will only place 4 taps in each tree as this is the maximum number of taps that a tree should have according to the North American Maple Producer’s Manual.

We not ready to tap yet as it is too early in the season, but running the lines before hand really helps spread out the work.

This group is an association of French, French speaking and francophile people in the Boston area.  A group of 10 ladies along with children will join us.