Saturday, March 2nd marked the beginning of our 11th maple season.  The afternoon started with checking the lines and cleaning up the sugar house.  Then Gordon put 40 taps in; 1/5 of the taps for the season.

Gordon started tapping this week.  So far he has tapped most of our property and one other property in Brentwood.  The sap is flowing and we are looking forward to our first boil!  We have scheduled 3 school groups so far for tours and are working on our plans for Maple Weekend.

Maple Weekend is March 24 and 25.  We will be open 9-4.  Our pancake breakfast was a huge success last year.  This year we will be hosting breakfast Saturday and Sunday from 9-11.  Maple apple crisp a la mode, coffee and apple cider donuts, and other goodies will also be for sale all day.  Last year the maple popcorn, nuts, and granola were a big hit.  We sold out of our syrup and candy.  The glass NH pints were the first off the shelves.  Wilson's Sugar House mugs and other merchandise will also be for sale this season.  We are thinking about renting a maple cotton candy machine.  Please let us know if you think this is a good idea and if you have any other suggestions for Maple Weekend 2012.  We are looking forward to seeing everyone!

One of our favorite parts of sugaring is sharing what we do with others.  In past years we have had school groups, Cub Scout and Brownie Troops, home school groups, preschool classes, as well as small groups of out of state visitors.  We have started scheduling tours for March!  The tour lasts abut 45 minutes to an hour and is geared toward the visitors but usually we talk about the process from tapping to bottling.  We start with the group watching a maple tree be tapped, tasting the sap, and seeing the difference between using tubing and bucket.  Some groups even help collect sap! Then we share the history of maple sugaring and explain the process of the sap being boiled in the evaporator.  Visitors have a chance to watch the process and look in the pan.  Next the finishing process is shared and samples of our syrup are handed out.  Questions are always encouraged.  If there is time visitors can say meet our Holstein bull calves.  Those interested in a group tour should call 603-966-6114 or contact us through our website. www.wilsonssugarhours.vpweb.com

What a strange winter! Wondering how the mild winter will effect the sugaring season.  

The Marcoux's dropped off a few loads of pine which have been stacked in the wood shed.  We are getting the sugar house tidied up, buying supplies, washing equipment and straightening out lines.  We are planning on tapping next week!   

If you visited our sugar house, we would love to hear about it.  Suggestions for next year are also appreciated!

Thanks to all who visited our sugar house over the weekend.  We had several hundred visitors sampling syrup, eating maple apple crisp, watching the sap boil, and walking through the sugar bush.  We had visitors from all over New England and Canada.  My favorite visitors were 2 little boys who checked the buckets for sap and then collected the sap in a 5 gallon bucket.  They were so excited to add the sap to the evaporator!  They even walked the sugar bush counting taps--future sugar makers for sure!

 

Gordon is working.  The sap is flowing.  I have to collect.  

   On Friday, our good friend Dave helped us out.  Well, actually did it for me....Saturday, our friend Gary helped me.  We collected over 200 gallons of sap and still had more to collect.  Our holding tanks were pretty much full.  As we were getting ready to collect down by the river visitors arrived.  They were from Oregon and had never seen maple syrup made before so..

 

The weather has really been cooperating in the seacoast region!  We collected over 300 gallons of sap in the past 24 hours. We boiled another 150 gallons last night and made about 3 gallons of light syrup.  The sap is still flowing and I will be collecting with the help of friends this morning.  Gordon filtered the syrup made last night and we will bottle it this evening. 

 

We are looking forward to boiling on Sunday as well.  Having family, friends, and neighbors over to boil with us is the best part of sugaring!

This year we are bottling in NH Maple Producer plastic jugs and new NH glass jugs.  The glass jugs are beautiful and really deserve more than just our usual return address label so I asked my friend Susan Kopecky who works for Coastal Promotions to help with "professional" labels.  Coastal Promotions designed a wonderful label and Susan found the best deal for us.  The labels should be here before Maple Weekend.

Susan has been helping us promote the sugar house for the last couple of years.