Each year when the Christmas parties fade behind us and a new calendar year arrives, our attention at the farm focuses in on two primary things: the arrival of baby lambs and a new sugaring season. This year has been no different and as we enter the final days of February a lot has transpired in the first two months of 2018.
Almost all of our expecting mother sheep have given birth to this year’s baby lambs, many of which are now multiple weeks old. These lambs spend their days exploring the barnyard and testing their running and jumping skills in small herds of youthful exuberance. A select few of this group will get to meet all of the farm’s visitors in the month of March, as our sugarhouse & big barn opens to the public on weekends.
The sugarhouse itself has been bustling with activity since the start of 2018. The first weeks of the year were focused on repairs to some frozen pipes in the Reverse Osmosis room and general preparation for the season. From mid-January through this past week everyone pitched in on tapping our 8,500+ maple trees. We finished this past Monday just in time for the thaw and had our first big syrup production stretch of the season. The shelves in our sugarhouse shop have been re-stocked with pure maple syrup, maple sugar and maple cream are being made again, and the weather in the coming weeks looks about right for some steady sap runs.
Over the coming weeks we’ll juggle maintaining good vacuum in the tubing lines, boiling the collected sap into pure maple syrup, and sharing the entire process on weekends with folks who come to visit and stock up on pure maple products. For regular updates, follow Windswept Maples on Facebook or Instagram, or call 603-435-4003 for weekend boiling times.