Author: bitznpeace

Just got 3 nuclear hives of bees to add to the 4 that made it through the winter. We’ll set them up tomorrow when the rain passes. Peas and cabbages are in.

The last few weekends have been wet and chilly, holding up the outside activities. But inside, work on the new cold room continues, and in the few breaks in the clouds we’ve been able to start the peas and cabbage patch.

Started working on converting a small garage into a cold room. Ordered the pieces to modify a window air conditioner to go down to 40 degree F.

In the seed trays, in the greenhouse. Tomatoes are next

It looks as if the end of the maple season is upon us here in Chelmsford. The weather predicted for the next week is too warm for sap, and after that the sap will probably be turning. We finished boiling the last of the sap today. 337 gallons of sap, which was extra strong this year – close to 2.5 Brix. We got 10 gallons of syrup. We’ll let it settle for a month or so, then bottle it.

In the greenhouse the eggplants are starting to sprout. And in the yard, the snowdrops are up. Spring is close.

The first batch of syrup has come off the evaporator. Very nice this year. A bit darker than last year, with excellent taste.

The bees are waking up. It hit 55F today and I checked my 5 hives. 4 of them made it through the winter. Not bad ! An 80% survival rate is considered very good here in New England.

And the maple sap was running today. We collected another 70+ gallons. There are 165 gallons in the sap tank, and we’re expecting a tsunami of sap over the next 4 days. I fired up the evaporator today for a quick check. All is well, and we should be making syrup on Sunday.

Here’s a link to the maple sap logs

https://www.saptapapps.com/map/9823097c-6f6c-487d-8b0c-7631493f62d4

There is in some parts of New England a kind of tree…whose juice that weeps out of its incision, if it be permitted slowly to exhale away the excess moisture, doth congeal into a sweet and saccharine substance. 

Robert Boyle
Philosophical Works (1663)

Started planting pepper seeds today !