Lots of boxes to fill

We’re off to a great start with bottling, but these boxes are all still empty.

Ending the season with good things

Well, we ended up with approximately 100 more gallons of finished syrup than last season which is a good thing.

We have plans to bottle this coming weekend and will have syrup available for sale next week which is also a good thing.

And the replacement parts came for our new sign which is a great thing.



Stay tuned for our Summer Farmers Market schedule.

Things are slowing down ...

Yesterday we collected only about 200 gallons of sap, so the season may be wrapping up. We’ll be cooking at the Shak all day today (Sunday) still playing catch-up from the big days on Thursday and Friday. Enjoy the beautiful day! ☀️

More of the same ...

We collected half of the woods yesterday and got 500 gallons. This morning we caught up with other half of the woods and brought back 600 gallons, then picked-up another 700 gallons from nearby syrup friends. Whew!! Cooking all weekend!!

Biggest collecting day since 2016

Definitely cooking for the next two days/evenings. Came out of the woods with 1500 gallons today🍁

Melting as fast as it came....

The snow seems to be disappearing as quickly as it came, and if the trees are running as good as the water from my roof, it'll be a great day. We'll collect tomorrow morning (Wednesday) and hope to be cooking in the afternoon/evening!

Superstitious? Cooking on Friday the 13th.

Heading out to the woods now to collect what's there before our weather does an ugly turn. See ya tonight at the Shak.

Trees have switched to 'ON' mode

We've been patient with our unusually cold April temps, but finally had a decent collecting day today...and the Shak is in action tonight, Wednesday. Snow is moving in over the weekend which always brings more sap!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!!!

Including last Friday night and yesterday's snowfalls, we've added about 16" of snow to the woods. It's April!!
Good News: This is like 'adding ice to the cooler,' hopefully prolonging the cool temps in the woods for a few weeks and allowing a decent sap run yet.
Bad News: Our helpers with short legs have to work extra hard to navigate carrying 5-gallon buckets. They don't complain.....yet.

Cooking at the Shak on Good Friday

We're committing to cooking tomorrow night at the Shak, Fri 3/30.....even though as of right now we don't have any sap on-hand in the tanks. We're hopeful what we collect in the woods tomorrow afternoon (which is a few days worth) will be enough to be making some syrup. If not, we'll fake it for Ellen!!

2018 cooking debut at the Shak tonight!

We had alot of folks hoping to see some action at the Sugar Shak over the weekend, but the trees didn’t perform.... But today they did! Heading back to the Shak with about 700 gallons. We’ll get the stove going for the first time this season tonight, and the week looks promising!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

It was a fun afternoon! We tapped the 70 trees at home....and they’re running! And then we ran out to the woods and tapped 200...they’re running too! Yippee!! The season has begun! We’ll finish tapping tomorrow morning to catch the afternoon run. And the 15-day forecast looks awesome! No surprise 70-degree temps to spoil the season like we’ve experienced the last two years. Enjoy your saturday night!

Neighboring trees run first

We're 100% ready to tap, but we're waiting for a message from our 'neighbors' that their trees are running before we actually put our taps in.
Q: Why do theirs run first?
A: Their trees are on a Southeast facing slope with lighter soils that tend to warm-up faster than our woods which has heavier soils and the slopes run down to the North. Their trees are showing spots of grass around the base of the tree where snow has melted away. Our trees are still 'way deep in snow.'
Stay tuned......

Kick'n-Off the 2018 Maple Season

We're readying ourselves for what we hope to be a great Maple Syrup harvest in 2018. The woods definitely experienced a 'real Minnesota winter' with lots of snow left in the woods yet and a good 15" of frost where we're tapping. We've got our buckets and taps set by each tree and are hopeful to actually tap the trees later this week......Weds/Thurs. Reminder.....the trees run best when temps freeze at night and reach 40-45 by noon. This coming Sat/Sun is forecasted to be 46/47 with several days next week above 40 and rain/snow moving in which helps the ground thaw and get things moving. Tis the Season!!