RicelandMeadows

March 13, 2026

What a crazy maple syrup year! Our soft maples have all budded after just 4 boils! But just as in the photo, there is a promise in the future!

The buds on the hard maples are tight and sleepy. Cold weather is coming again. We will continue our season with just hard maple sap. We will just have to accept that our sap collection will be much less. The soft maples make up about 60% of our tapped trees.

The difference is this; soft maple’s sap is less abundant and not as sweet as the sap from the hard maples. This causes us to boil more water off to get to the yummy maple syrup. The hard maples, give more and sweeter sap that the soft maples do.

So we can keep on making syrup for a while longer, thanks to the delicious hard maples. We have made and will continue to make some very good 2026 maple syrup.

I even got caught working!

Carrying the sap from tree to tank, is a job that i don’t often do anymore, but I do still know how to do it.

So, our season has been more warm than cold making us “hurry up and wait” a whole lot this year. Last Saturday, I boiled for over 9 hours caused by a big sap run. On Sunday, the following day after a warm rainy night, the soft maples all welcomed spring by budding out.

As I came up from the sugarhouse this afternoon, from doing a few tasks, I realized that the trees have budded providing pollen for bees and other pollinators. The green grass is growing exceptionally well for this time of year providing food for many wild animals. The warm wet ground is making a feast of earthworms for early migrating birds. After a very cold winter, I am sure God is just providing for all of his creatures.

We will continue to make syrup as long as we can. I will be thankful for whatever amount we get. I am also grateful for pollen, grass and worms as my farm exhibits the perfect cycle of life…. and the fact that this old sap can still run.