The second batch produced just under three gallons of Maple Syrup, 2 gallons 3.5 quarts to be exact, quite the harvest for just five days of sap! Minnesota's constantly changing spring weather has its advantages with snow, ice, freezing temps one day and warm sunny weather the next! I started the boil down late Wednesday night (03/17/2021) and finished Sunday night (03/21/2021).

The 68 gallons of maple sap boiled down to just over two gallons of syrup!

I am tracking the daily collection, of sap, here!

Sugar content was near perfect, as tested with a maple syrup hydrometer! Now its on to the next batch of sap!

The clones continue to grow, not roots yet but that takes several weeks! The apple trees are starting to show signs of life too! Based, on what I have read, apple trees are the most difficult to clone and take the longest to get roots.

While the crazy weather changes, this week, felt a bit like a mad roller coaster it did cause the maple sap to flow! From March 2, 2021 to March 9, 2019 we collected 24 gallons of sap and then on March 10-March 11 we collected just over 12 gallons! March 10th it was cold, raining, and sleeting and having more than enough room in the pails I skipped harvesting.

Sap flows when day time temps are above freezing and night time temps fall below freezing!

If you think Minnesota only has four seasons, think again!

Always a good idea to start seed planting early! Otherwise you may not get the seeds you want due to limited quantities. This list will likely grow over the next couple months but wanted to do an inventory!

Seeds Kept from Last Year

As time goes on I plan to keep more and more of the previous years seeds for the next growing season. Starting out small and slowly will scale up!

Last fall I collected, dried, and stored purple beans to use for planting in 2021. Even though I purchased heirloom seeds I wanted to be certain they would actually germinate. What better way than to simply grow them in our indoor garden aka plant lab! The good news is the seeds have germinated and the better news is in a couple months we will have fresh beans to eat!

Here is something that amazed me. Compost piles or in this case a wood chip pile can remain active during the winter. Just three weeks ago we had -25 F temps here but part of the pile is 110 F today! I am sure deeper inside this pile there are even hotter temps!

We tapped the trees on Tuesday, March 2, 2021 and there are at total of four trees tapped. First two days produced just a gallon of sap each day but today there was four gallons! Should boil down to 2.4 cups but plenty of time left to collect more sap!