Update: April 7 (14 days after initial tapping)
On April 7, we returned from a short 5-day Easter family visit to Atlantic Canada. In the meantime, Jenn's brother's family had agreed to handle collection for us. The first day or two were cool, but then a perfect series of below-freezing/above-freezing days started, and by the time we came back on the 7th, our secondary storage containers had almost been maxed out - meaning about 80 more litres of sap had been collected. Furthermore, the current day was obviously turning out to be a record-breaker, because every single one of the collection buckets was filled to the brim and overflowing, with maple sap dripping over the edge to soak into the now snowless ground. Clearly we were going to have to get started immediately with our 10:1 boiling process.
On a side note, it appeared as if the early reluctance of the smaller Sugar Maples to produce sap had passed - they were now flowing sap nearly as fast as the other trees.
The current rate of sap flow was crazy! With the April 7 haul alon at about 45 litres, I started to hope that this would all ramp down soon. Fortunately, it looked like by the end of the week, the temperatures would rise above freezing and stay there permanently. And apparently continuous above-freezing temps means it is time to stop collecting sap. Final syrup production to commence shortly....
Sap Production, April 3 through to April 7
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April 3-7 (while we were away): Silver Maple sap - 31L, Sugar Maple sap - 26L
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April 7: Silver Maple sap - 18L+ (overflow), Sugar Maple sap - 27L+ (overflow)
Totals from April 3rd through to the 7th: 49 litres of Silver Maple sap, and 53 litres of Sugar Maple sap, for a combined total of around 102 litres. Plus some unknown amount that spilled into the ground due to overflow.
Grand Total of all sap collected since tapping: 98 litres of Silver Maple Sap, and 89 litres of Sugar Maple Sap.
187 litres in all - and counting! Wow.
