Today marked the end of this year's maple syrup season. At least, the sap gathering part. We went around removing all our taps from the trees. Most needed the pry bar. A few twisted out.
In most cases, the jugs were empty. Little, to no, sap had been flowing the past few days anyhow. Typically, a tap is good for about five weeks before the tree starts to heal the hole and no more sap flows out of it. Since we drilled on February 6th, we were right on the five week mark.
The jugs out in the stream bed were a bit more of a challenge. With the past couple of warmer days, all that snow from last week's storm has been melting away. The little stream has risen and spread out across the little valley's flat bottom.
Beneath the snow, the ground was very wet, or it was just plain water under there. I found out that my winter boots aren't waterproof for that sort of duty.
A few of the trees' jugs had a little bit in them. We gathered enough on this last harvest round to make one last boil, which we have going on the deck now. This year's harvest was quite good. When we're all done boiling and jarring them up, we'll have over 24 pint jars of maple syrup. There will be a couple pints of less-than-prime cloudy "utility" syrup more suitable for baking, etc.
All in all, it was a good year for maple syrup. Now, on to seed starting for the spring gardening!