Templeton Farm

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Templeton Farm
3410 Center Road
East Montpelier, Vt. 05651

802-223-0169
802-461-5352
[email protected]

2023 Maple Sugaring Season at Templeton Farm

04.20.2023

I wanted to give everyone a final update on our maple sugaring season. There were a lot of firsts and accomplishments for the season which I will outline below:

  • Preparations for the season actually began last summer on our largest maple stand on Foster Road which is owned by Seth & Natalie and their generous cooperating neighbors Jersey Ledges LLC. We removed all the old tubing, had a logger come in thin the woods, 1800 new maple taps were then installed by professional maple tubing installers.
  • Just days before Christmas we were hit with high easterly winds which tore down trees and required considerable maple tubing repairs. Family, friends and hired labor worked tirelessly to cut up and remove downed trees and repair damaged maple lines before the season began or heavy snow arrived. By mid-January all 3700 trees we tap were ready for the season.
  • Seth had a feeling the season may start early so he rallied the troops and all the trees were tapped by February 10th , 20 years ago we did not even think of tapping trees until mid March.
  • Our first boil was on February 16th with good sap runs. In 37 years of sugaring only twice did we ever boil in February and it was late in the month.
  • Once March arrived so did winter, cold and snow ruled the month with cloudy and cold weather we never really got big runs, but with the new tubing and a southerly exposure on Foster Road the trees really produced. Our farm woods and Morse Farm woods never did well with deep snow and cloudy cold weather.
  • Season highlights were very light syrup throughout the season, good sugar content in the maple sap until late season, lots of niter (minerals) in the syrup which we filter out.
  • I want to say that Natalie, Seth, Ryan and Froggy really came through this year to get everything tapped and keeping the vacuum levels high, Sherry and I were in Florida for the month of January and did not get back until early February.
  • Our last boil was on April 12th we produced the largest maple crop in Templeton Farm history with 1432 gallons of maple syrup.
  • As I always say we are blessed with such a great family and friends who come together and make all this happen each spring.
  • I will end by saying check out the picture above, Natalie is serving up our special maple drink to the group after a big evening of boiling.

Bruce, Sherry, Seth, Natalie, Ryan, Michelle, Sofia & Breanna