We'll be cooking tomorrow night (Fri, 3/23). 

Happy Saint Patty's Day

We'll be cooking tonight, Sat 3/17.  Our neighboring syrup friend (towards Buffalo) called this morning and said "Barthel, better get your stove going and round up your crew.....the trees ran all night!"

Last night's crew......

Good News / Bad News

Good News:  We'll be cooking tonight, Fri 3/16!.....but in a much abbreviated form.  We don't have enough sap to fill the big evaporating pan, so we'll just be using the smaller front pan.  Still fun to be had for Kids and Adults.

Bad News:  This beautiful weather we're enjoying is NOT perfect maple syrup weather.  With the unusually high temps, the trees will probably bud out this weekend.  Once the trees bud, the sap no longer has sugar in it because the tree sends the sugar to feed the developing leaves!   It's going to be a very short season.

We're still hopeful!!  I think we may have been anxious a little prematurely this year with the super-mild Winter.  We're all anticipating spring to come so early.  BUT our old-timer syrup friends reassure us that the best sap flow days are when the edges around the lakes begin to melt, the puddles in the woods seem to disappear (meaning the frost is coming out of the ground), and you see running water in the woods.....this is all yet to come...soon!  AND our first collection day last year was March 17...the year before was March 11.  So there's still much hope!!

We were in the woods today.....not even a drop of sap.  Plenty of pesty critters, though.  The squirrels have been chewing the taps right off the tree.  We got them fixed and set all the buckets upright that had tipped over because of melting snow.  With the kids off school this week, it'd be so fun if the trees ran like crazy....but the forecast doesn't look so good.  No freezing temps at night.  The week after looks to be cooler....stay tuned.

This time of year, we watch the weather like a Soap Opera.  We (and the trees) need the nights to freeze and the days to be 40 by noon.  So......they might run tomorrow (Sat) and next Tuesday.  If it doesn't freeze, the trees don't run!

Ready.......

The trees are tapped.......

The wood for the stove is ready.......

Our uniforms are in order......

We're just waiting on Miss Mother Nature.....she didn't allow her picture to be posted.

Stay tuned!

First Blog Entry....Ever!!!

This is our first entry to our Barthel's River Road Gold blog.  Stay tuned for more information regarding this spring's syrup season!