Cold, crisp nights become warm afternoons signaling the trees to come alive. The maples send their sap to branches that want to reach out to the sun. Our season can begin as early as February in southern Vermont and extends into April in northern areas. It starts as warm spring winds blow over the hills. Just as the cold winds of autumn take away our colorful leaves, so does this wind wake the trees from their slumber.
Trees send sap to the topmost branches that are warmed by the sun.
In the cold of evening the sap is drawn back down to the roots. Whether it drips into buckets for later collection or goes into tubing for direct delivery to the sugarhouse, this is the stuff of our sweetest season. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. When the sap is flowing heavily the evaporator may run 24 hours for days at a time. There is nothing like the sweet aroma that surrounds a sugarhouse in full boil.