Maplecicles

So we have reached February…….the long awaited month to tap maples and make the winters best treat….MAPLE SYRUP!!  The kids are in countdown mode now.  Kade tells me each evening how many days are left before we can consider putting our taps in.  As you can probably tell…..we are all VERY excited each year when maple season rolls around (especially now that we are back in the northern tier states).

The kids got a little reprieve from the waiting yesterday in the form of “maplescicles”.  With the ups and downs in temperature that we have started to have recently the maples are starting to think about pumping sap.  This can start happening here in Central Maine anytime it warms up, starting in about mid-January or so.  We also had the devastating ice storm early in the season which brought branches down (fortunately no major damage on our mature maples…..just small branches).

Due to these previous wounds from the ice storm, during these brief warm days we have had, you can notice the sap starting to drip.  Yesterday, I was out walking the dog and found a rare winter treat hanging from a Norway maple branch.  Out of a small wound on the branch, the sap had started dripping and then we got cold again.  The sap froze in icicle form……thus creating maplescicles.

The kids loved them…….devoured them actually, and this only adds fuel to the mad countdown until taps go in!!

 

-Dylan