First tap of 2010

I froze today! While most ladies were enjoying bon-bons and flowers for Valentine’s Day, I was out working with Joe getting the tubing ready for sugaring season. Couldn’t have asked for a better day with my Love!

2009 Maple Syrup Season

The 2009 Massachusetts maple syrup season is over too soon for Joe and I. Our crop this year was down 20%, mostly because the temperature did not fluctuate enough for the sap to flow. The nights need to be below freezing and the days warm for the best production. If it just stays cold night and

Really, I’m working!

Joe snapped this incriminating picture of Pearl and I resting in the sun as he left to go collect sap. Really, though, I was working! What’s a girl to do while she’s waiting for the maple syrup to heat up for bottling? Yeah, I’m earning my keep…this maple stuff is exhausting work, you know! We

Flat Stanley Visits from Texas

Today we had a very special (and thin) visitor at the Hardwick Sugar Shack. Mr. Flat Stanley came all the way from Texas to see sap flow out of the sugar maple trees. God may bless Texas, as the song goes, but there’s not a maple tree in sight in the grand state. That’s why Mr.

New land for the sugar bush

In January, Joe and I bought some land near Moose Brook in Hardwick. It’s a beautiful spot…the river flows through the property, there’s great hiking, and of course there’s lots of sugar maple trees! The video below shows Joe and I last weekend at the new land, before our first open house of the 2009 season.

Turkeys join me for lunch

Today the wild turkeys that call the Hardwick Sugar Shack home stopped by for an afternoon visit. Take a look at what they ate for lunch…

Tapping has begun!

Yes, its been a long winter here in the Northeast. In fact, we still have these huge icicles hanging off the front of our house. Nonetheless, I know spring is right around the corner because Joe began tapping trees this weekend! We have about 1000 taps at this point, and adding more every year. I

Cleaning up the ice storm, getting ready for maple season 2009

This is the time of year that Joe shifts gears from construction and spends more time in the sugar bush setting up lines, cleaning up tree debris, fixing damage from little critters, and doing all the things that get us in good shape for February tapping. This year he’s got his hands full. That nasty