Maple Facts
| Of the 148 species of maple (Acer), globally only four species produce enough sweet sap to be harvested, and typically sap is only harvested from two – the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) and Red Maple (Acer rubrum). |
| Sugaring 2011: Perfect Weather |
| Written by Emma Marvin |
| Friday, 08 April 2011 08:19 |
|
From the Farm, April 7: The sap ran well today. We collected about 1000 gallons of sap an hour during the afternoon. Currently, it's 32 degrees and we should get a good freeze tonight and a good sap run tomorrow as a result. ~ Ira It takes cold nights and warm days to get the sap flowing. Ideal sugaring weather are nights in the 20's and days in the 40's. After a good freeze, much like we had last night, it takes most of the morning for the sap in the lines to thaw out and for the trees to start running. An hour or two can make a big difference because the sun heats up the lines faster than the air.
From the Farm, April 8: It's dumping around every ten seconds, which is equal to 1800 gallons of sap an hour and it's only 9:30. It should be a great day. ~ Ira When the sap enters our sugarhouse it comes into a releaser. The releaser is a small tank into which all of our sap lines flow. When a specific sap level is reached, thes sap is released from the releaser tank into large holding tanks. Having a releaser allows us to keep our tubing system always under vacuum.
|