Templeton Farm

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Templeton Farm
3410 Center Road
East Montpelier, Vt. 05651

802-223-0169
802-461-5352
Templetonfarmvt@gmail.com

2015 Seeason Overview

05.16.2015

A number of you have asked me what’s going with sugaring this year and we have been so busy I have not had much time to write you once the season was underway and since it ended we have cut 10-12 cords of wood to refill the sugarhouse woodshed and we are still cleaning up equipment. The short story on the season is this:

  • We began tapping 2400 trees on Feb. 21st, the day began at -10 degrees with 2-3 feet of snow on the ground, by 9:30 am temp. hit a balmy 20 degrees. Difficult tapping conditions
  • Our first boil was March 21st the whole month of March was very cold, many subzero days
  • The season did not really get underway until the first of April and ran continuously until the last boil on the 17th it was almost a carbon copy of the 2014 season except colder
  • We had almost nonstop freeze up issues with our vacuum system in the woods. Every day we were hauling hot water in 5 gallon containers into the woods to thaw out frozen equipment. We have been sugaring for 29 years and this was our toughest season due to the cold.
  • The good part of the season we produced 750 gallons of great tasting syrup in roughly 3 weeks, last year we made 748 gallons. You never how long the sugaring season is going to last but 4-6 weeks is in the normal range.
  • The State of Vermont maple crop came in at 75% of a total crop. We were 80-85% of a normal crop and quite pleased

I will end with a very interesting television clip about a new state of the art maple sugaring operation that began operation this year in Island Pond, Vermont. A group of investors from Mass. & Conn. Began this operation as a healthy natural sweetener and an alternative to high fructose corn syrup. They began with 90,000 taps which is a huge undertaking and plan to double the size by next year. They have bought thousands of acres of land spending millions of dollars. It will be interesting to see how an operation of this size fares in the coming years. Most of the maple operations in New England are smaller and operated by family. Enjoy the clip.

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Bruce, Janet, Ryan, Seth, Natalie and the great crew who produce Templeton Farm maple syrup