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About
the Maple Sugar Season
The
maple sugar season in western Massachusetts usually begins
around mid February and continues till the first of April.
When the daytime temperatures start to rise above
freezing and the nights continue to freeze at this time we
take to the woods with our drills, buckets, and pipeline to
gather sap from the sugar maple trees.
During the month of March we have consecutive days,
which are above freezing, and nights that go below freezing
which allows sap flow.
We must then go and collect the sap daily.
Our maple sugar operation sets about 5000 taps.
We collect the sap from the sugar maple trees to
produce high quality maple syrup.
On an average day we collect around 2,500 gal. of raw
sap. We then
must truck the raw sap to our Sugar Shack.
This is when we fire our wood fired evaporator and
boil down the raw sap into pure maple syrup.
It takes about 40 gal of sap to produce 1 gal. of
pure maple syrup. When
the sap reaches 219 and a half degrees it is then considered
maple syrup. We
then must check for the correct density and color.
At this point we can determine the grade and package
it for resale.
Grades
of maple syrup (Grade
A | Grade B)
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Light
Amber-
This is our first run of the season
syrup very light in color with a delicately sweet maple
flavor. |
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| Medium
Amber-
Slightly darker in color with a more
wonderful pronounced maple flavor. Try it on pancakes, cereal, or over ice cream! |
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| Dark
Amber-
A dark colored syrup with a stronger
maple flavor. Excellent
for the maple syrup lovers. |
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Grade
B Syrup
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Grade
B-
Our darkest syrup with a robust maple
flavor. This
syrup is made at the end of our season.
Excellent for cooking and still wonderful on
pancakes.
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