Dan King, whose relatives you are familiar with, tells me he has started tapping even though it is a bit early, because the forecast was that the nighttime temps would go below freezing and the daytime temps above, which is what you need for flow. It can be risky if you are on the margin either way, and just a little below the freezing mark is apparently a hard line, so 45 day/33 night, or 30 day/15 night will produce some flow, but be meager. As a practical matter, that means that conditions might be perfect at one latitude in the state but unworkable fifty miles north or south.
His estimate was correct (unsurprising: high school science teacher, the job he uses to support being a farmer) and he has had the highest three days ever to start the season, and already has 20% of expected sap. For those curious, he estimated a few years ago how much he is paying himself for this work. He figures it's between $.03 and .04/hour. He still thinks it's worth it for his boys to grow up on a farm.
30 years ago when I lived in Quebec the large producers there were using "reverse osmosis" membrane systems backwards, to concentrate the sugar before "boiling down".
ReplyDeleteBoiling-down takes a tremendous amount of energy, and even if traditionally most of that is from wood harvested in the tending of the "sugar bush", there is still a lot of labor time into it.
The previous owner of our place put in a great row of sugar maples, but if we ever tap them I suspect it will be to pass on the sap "raw" to a larger producer in exchange for a few pennies.