We had a crazy sap season this year. In past years we have tapped trees early March and started boiling around the 15th. We know it is time for sap to run when there are nights below freezing and days in the high 30's or up into the 40's. This year we tapped over 200 trees around the first of March and by the 15th we had several gallons of syrup made. We probably missed some good sap runs in February. By March 21st, the first day of spring, we had made 12 batches with a little over a gallon per batch. Then we had over a week of warm days and warm nights...sap did not run at all.
The Sun Journal did a super article on the front page of the Saturday edition of the paper "From Sugar to Sheep". They also sent out a videographer to put a short clip online. To see it go to sunjournal.com/sumnerfarm. Some readers got the impression that this was our last year to do maple syrup, but if you read carefully to the end you see that this is the last year for our old sugar house (once a chicken coop), which is coming down soon to build a fiber processing building. Next year we will have the same evaporator in a smaller sugar house back closer to the southwest field. The article also talked about our growing flock of sheep including a picture of Willow, a triplet and one of Venus, our littlest lamb just 12 days old.
We heard that quite a few maple farms had actually pulled taps and were planning to boil water on Maine Maple Sunday. In preparation for the day we went out to collect sap on Saturday only to find ice in the buckets. The sap had run...and the day was so cold it had frozen. We took the buckets into the kitchen to thaw overnight. When people started to arrive early Sunday (before we planned to be open) we were still thawing the lines with a hair dryer and had not yet started a fire in the evaporator. "Come back later" Mary Ann said....
We had a wonderful team of helpers. One friend greeted people at the end of the driveway. She counted over 170 adults and many children who came to see our diversified farm. One of our helpers put together a bulletin board for the barn that is titled "Our Farm Family". It includes some pictures of our animals, the names of our sheep, tracing back to the first two, "Lucy and Winnie". It also includes the names and birth date of each of our 24 spring lambs this year, the six angora goats, Bubba (the horse), Nutter Butter and Mrs. Whatsit (the cats), Meg (the dog) and the chickens. No, we do not usually name the chickens.
We had helpers in the barn to answer questions about the animals and show off the new pole barn, built last fall. The 3 youngest lambs were in the barn with their mothers, and the rest of the flock was behind the barn. The lambs were not as playful as usual. It was cold in the barn!
Mary Ann was boiling sap in the sugar and made two gallons of sap, though it took her way into the evening to do it. She was talking about the process of turning sap into maple syrup as she fed the evaporator with wood all day long. She also tried to keep tabs on a table with cookies and coffee cake, but there was not time to make coffee or maple tea. At least it was warmer there.
Marty was in the shop where, at times, people were shoulder to shoulder and standing in line to buy their maple syrup, rovings, yarn, and knitted items. Another friend showed up just in time to take over the checkout stand so Marty could demonstrate needlefelting for a customer. It was toasty warm from the wood stove...another reason it was a popular place to be. One young person with angora bunnies bought lovely white roving to blend with her bunny fiber to spin into yarn for a baby that is expected in the near future. Another CSA customer signed up for our first annual Weekend Spring Fiber Gathering in April and went home with roving to spin as part of her fiber share. One of the Tuesday knitters showed up with an angora hat and a felted bag she had made. It was added to the table of knitted items to sell. The work for many knitted items were made by members of our Tuesday knitting circle with yarn from our animals. It was a contribution to the success of the day.
We do indeed have a growing fiber community.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
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