It is almost a month late but here are some pictures from tapping this year.

We are boiling again today.  So far the season has gone well, we have made ~230 gallons of syrup.  The weather looks like may be to warm this coming week and put an end to our season early.  If you want to check if the sap is running at our sugar house you can go to http://mattsmaplesyrup.com/releaser/pump_times.html .  The pump for our releaser tank is controlled by a micro computer and it updates the website every time the pump cycles.  It allows us to monitor what is happening at our sugar house without having to drive over and physically take a look.

We are boiling for the first time today.  We still haven’t made any syrup but we should by the end of the night.  We go all of the trees tapped February 21st and 22nd.

We had saved some sap for this weekend so Jeremy, Karen, Meris and Attia could help with boiling.  We had 3250 gallons of sap saved to boil in today.  We started at around 10:00 this morning and finished at around 5:00 and made 88.5 gallons of syrup which brought our total up to 215 gallons for the year.  We started out the day making Amber Rich syrup and by the end of the day it darkened to Dark Robust.

The 2015 sugaring season has started!

We started tapping on Sunday and just finished up today.  There are a few lines that we didn’t get done because they are buried in the snowbank along the road.  We are looking forward to the weather warming up a bit so the sap will run.

New for this year we will have internet access at the sugar house so we will be able to update when we are boiling from the sugar house.  We also have a new system to control the pump for the releaser tank.  The releaser tank is where all of the sap lines come into the sugar house.  The sap then has to get pumped out of the small releaser tank and into the large storage tanks.  The pump is now controlled by a micro computer.  The computer can let us know when the pump last turned on which will tell us how well the sap is running without having to drive all the way over to the sugar house.

You can now buy Matt’s Maple Syrup at the Chelsea Royal Diner.  We want to keep thing simple for the diner staff so they are just selling quarts and pints and what ever grade we happen to bring down.  We are grateful the Diner supports local businesses and the staff there for selling our syrup.

We finished tapping Sunday March 9th.  It took four of us two days to get all of our taps out.  We did around 1200 the first day and the remaining 600 taps the second day.

Two of the people carried tools and supplies to fix broken lines.  We walk the lines in the fall before it snows but there is always something new that needs fixing.

We boiled for the first time today and made about 4 gallons of syrup.  It takes quite a bit of sap to get everything sweetened up and draw off for the first time.  Now all we need is for the weather to start cooperating so we can get some more sap to boil.

We started tapping our trees today.  We tapped around 1200 of our 1800 taps.  We should be able to finish tapping tomorrow without much trouble.  We did the steepest and most difficult area today.

The sale on Quarts of Syrup is almost over.  Take advantage of this offer while there is still time.  The sale ends February 22nd.

New Grading Standards for Vermont Syrup Producers

The State of Vermont has officially adopted the new International Grading Standards for maple syrup produced here starting in January of 2014.  The first year will be a transitional year and either grading system may be used.  Starting in 2015 the new grading system and terminology must be used.

The new grading system describes the four syrup colors differently and adds some language to describe the flavor associated with that color.  Here are the four new grades:

Grade A Golden Color with Delicate Taste – This grade corresponds to the old Vermont Fancy grade and has a very light color and a delicately sweet maple flavor

Grade A  Amber Color with Rich Taste –  This grade corresponds to the old Vermont Medium Amber grade and is a bit darker with a more pronounced flavor.

Grade A Dark Color with Robust Taste – This grade corresponds to the old Vermont     Dark Amber grade and is darker still and has a stronger flavor.

Grade A Very Dark Color with Strong Taste – This grade corresponds to the old Vermont Grade B and is very dark in color and has a very strong taste.  This grade is generally used in cooking and processing although some who prefer a strong syrup taste may use it as a table syrup.

At Matt’s Maple Syrup we will be grading and labeling the syrup made in 2014 using the new grading standards.  If you have any questions or concerns about the new grading standards, please feel free to contact us for a further explanation.

Thanks for your patience during this transitional period.