The Bovine Bugle

A return of the cold in May means a return of the sap

We decided to gather the sap today and clean out the buckets to get ready for what we hope will be some good syruping runs. The weather forecast is for it to turn colder Sunday afternoon with snowfall up to 6 inches. Because of the mild weather this past week, it will take some pretty cold nights to freeze up the trees to get them to run again. We had a good gathering crew today. Along with Karen, Ben, Justin, Noah, and me, there was my brother, Steve, and his daughters Emily and Maddy, and my sister, Betsy, her husband, Jeff, and their kids, Hanna and Zach. We gathered about 2 1/2 tubs. My dad made 9-10 gallons of syrup. This brings the season's total to about 90 gallons.

Sugarmakers often tell how many "barrels", not gallons, they have made for the season. Barrels used to store syrup hold 30 gallons of syrup. So we could say we have made 3 barrels of syrup so far this season.

The organic cooperative we belong to, CROPP Cooperative, is holding their annual meeting today in LaFarge, Wisconsin. CROPP is a farmer-owned cooperative with a board of directors made up of farmers elected from the general membership. Belonging to CROPP gives us, the farmer, a say in how our cooperative is run and a share in any profits the cooperative has made during the year. We have belonged to CROPP for three years now and we have enjoyed belonging to such a successful cooperative.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Posted by Blogger Chris at April 20, 2004 09:12 PM