No pun intended.  The 15 day forecast calls for below freezing temperatures for highs and subzero for lows, which gets us close to March with no melting.   Oh well its winter.  I did see a new piece of filtering equipment at Roth’s open house last week.  The vacuum filter press, pictured below, worked quite well,  granted it was with clean syrup, but it filtered a half gallon in seconds.  I was impressed.  Cost of these are $499.00 and it is a good price option for those who want something improved over the the Orlon bags but do not want to spend $1,500 on a 7 inch short bank filter press.   I do have these filter tanks in stock as well as the filter presses

Oh, on my last blog post I mentioned, not much snow in the woods.  Well that has changed. Most people I have talked to there is at least a foot of snow and frost is between 18 and 24 inches deep.   

Happy Valentines Day.

Don

Vacuum Filter Press, $499.00

Now is the time to begin  gathering supplies for the upcoming maple season.  It won’t be long until we will see the sparks flying for you wood burners out there.

With minimal snow in the woods it is an opportune time to repair and replace tubing chewed up by those pesky squirrels and downed tree branches.  I have a complete inventory of 5/16 and 3/16 tubing and fittings, and  3/4 and 1 inch mainline.  Also in stock is the new spinseal tool which replaces the saddles with leak free connections.  

The 5% off sale is coming up this February 6,7,8,and 9th.    

And I will be buying sap again this year (.15-.16 cents per percentage point of sugar) and custom cooking sap for 50/50 shares.  

Looking forward to serving you in the upcoming maple season.

Don Hansen

Well we have had another unusual winter in Minnesota, warm,  in the 60’s on Valentines day,  then cold for a bit then last week more warmth and 60’s and thunderstorms and tornadoes, go figure.  Today is March 9th and the forecast is for a week of winter like temps, really??? in March??.  -1 degrees is forecast for tonight in the St. Croix Valley.   We were one of the few sugar makers in the area that have not tapped yet.  Yes, we missed last weeks run which people said was a good one, however now with this cold and wind, the tap holes begin to dry out a bit.  It has been my experience that the largest sap runs come at the end of the season and not at the beginning.  We plan to tap our trees  beginning next Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday.  The forecast Temperatures look great through April 10th.  Hopefully our decision to wait was a good one.  Keep in mind we have 2000 buckets and it is impossible to re-tap all those if we tap too early.   I recall a year where we tapped old growth maples in Center City, MN,  big trees, on March 10th.  Then we had below zero temps for 10 days.  Those trees yielded zero sap because the holes dried up.  I have never made that same mistake again.  Anyway, we all have a great season yet to come and the party is just getting started.  Have fun,   and remember, we are all in this together.

Don