February in Vermont has gotten a bit slushy and a tad icy with the freeze-thaw cycles of the last couple of weeks. Lucky for us that means it’s time for tapping (some of) our maple trees. In total we’ll have 21 taps this season, up a couple from last year. Here are photos of our taps with a fresh dusting of snow and the companionship of yurt dogs. Don’t count the taps—we still have a handful to put in…
We’ll have enough sap for our first maple sugar boil in a few days. We love boiling days—not only does it feel good to work on a project where progress is tangible, but it gives us an excuse to get outside, stay outside, and hang around a fire in the snow. Hopefully we can convince some friends to join us. Having company is an added bonus.
We’ll be reusing the same evaporator setup we put together last year. We wrote about it here: How to Make a Cheap Maple Syrup Evaporator for Under $50.
