In all the past years, earliest we have had sap running is February 27th, and so that is what we prepare for. Imagine our surprise late last week when we figured out, OMG the season is passing us by. We have been working every spare minute on getting ready. Hanging lines for 500+ taps all around town, including a brand new run of 100 taps that replaces nearly the same amount in trees cut down last season on Johnson and Salem Streets. Cleaning the sugar house, the pans, the pumps, the tanks, and anything else we can put hot water to. And for the first time since December, now the website. There will be more coming soon. As in past years, we will post boiling schedules daily so keep checking back. Kathy is also working on a comprehensive tour schedule, sorry to all of you that have been waiting.

We should be ready to go by the end of this week. Then the question will be, will the sap run? The last week has been perfect, to our shagrin, and now it looks like the next 4 days will be miserable. Our boiling this weekend will be purely dependent on whether mother nature will have some pity on Turtle Lane Maple Farm. Cross your fingers, do a dance, and check back daily as we get closer to the weekend.

For those of you on Facebook, we have been enjoying sharing information via our Fan Page at: www.facebook.com/turtlelanemaplefarm and on twitter at http://twitter.com/turtlelanemaple

Thanks for supporting local agriculture!

We are in the process of cleaning the sugarhouse, repairing the equipment, and getting ready to run tubing (we are always looking for volunteers).  We expect to run tubing during the last two weeks of February. Most likely in the last week of February we will be tapping the trees in expectation that the beginning of March will kickoff the beginning of the season.  The perfect weather for set flow is daytime temperatures in the 40’s and overnight below freezing.  Although the groundhog says that there is many more weeks of winter we believe that the beginning of spring is right around the corner.

We are hoping for a plentiful season of sap flow, because all indications are that we are sure to have a successful season in terms of visitors. We have already booked 28 groups for tours, not to mention all of the drop-in visitors we are expecting.  Last year we had 1,750 visitors for free tours (a new record), not sure if we will beat that this year.  We’re getting antsy for the season to begin, and look forward to the upcoming weeks in March!