SEASON OF THE SNAKE

This summer the three-year olds have been preoccupied with snakes: snake drawings, snake bedtime stories, snake photos, snake ecology. And understandably so, as there’s nothing more exciting, terrifying, and mystifying than a snake even for a three-year old who isn’t aware of all our snake mythology. We’ve looked at photos of constrictors who’ve succeeded in consuming a crocodile, snakes which blind by shooting venom, and the densely-populated, super-eerie snake dens. Even for me, very few animals make me jump and even give a little yelp when I come across one slithering ahead of me in the grass. And I like snakes.

To catch more sightings, we set up snake boards on the stone walls near our gardens and pond.

The snakes come out of their stone wall homes and curl up on the warm sun-heated stones under the protection of the snake boards. Then to their annoyance, the three-year olds come visit, lifting the boards in search of one.

Often the snake boards look like this: empty or cricket filled.

But it’s not unusual to see one like we did this morning.

And since I’ve spent some time looking in field guides this summer I know this is a ring-necked snake, a small gray snake with a yellow belly and a pretty yellow ring around its neck. The other snake we tend to see is the common garter snake. We have at least two garters of significant size fattening themselves, hopefully, on the voles in our garden. And I’m pretty sure there’s a milk snake in the area, although I’ve haven’t seen him/her for a couple of years.

There’s a good website listing all the herps in Vermont with pictures, maps, and ecology information- The Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas  http://community.middlebury.edu/~herpatlas/ This is a great resource for figuring out what snakes are in the stone walls and what frogs are in the pond.

FAREWELLS

On the Mountain today we are saying a fond farewell to Vermont Fancy, Medium Amber, and Dark Amber. Yes, with the arrival this week of the new cap stickers, we are officially joining the new era of maple syrup grade names.

Different grade names across each state and Canada left consumers confused about what grade of syrup to buy and how they differ. Last year the entire industry agreed to standardize the grade names, and Vermont is the first state to make the change official. Vermont producers have until January 2015 to change the grade names on their syrup. So today, we’re now on board. Yay!

For those of you who know that, say, Dark Amber is your favorite syrup and are now wondering what to get, here’s a cheat sheet:

Vermont Fancy is now: Golden Color and Delicate Taste

Medium Amber is now: Amber Color and Rich Taste

Dark Amber is now: Amber Color and Rich Taste

Grade B is now: Dark Color and Robust Taste

Commercial Grade (beyond B we like to call it) is now: Very Dark Color and Strong Taste

Overall I’m happy with this change. It’s easier for consumers to know what they’re purchasing, all grades of syrup are now Grade A, and commercial grade/beyond b can be sold retail when, prior to this year, it wasn’t allowed.

However there are a couple of drawbacks. Golden Color/Delicate Taste is actually lighter than Vermont Fancy which means that it’s going to be harder to make. It certainly favors larger producers who have vacuum, cold storage, and major reverse osmosis operations. These producers can keep sap cold and produce high sugar contents in their sap through big ROs which means it becomes syrup faster creating a lighter color.

The combining of Medium and Dark Ambers into one grade of Amber Color/Rich Taste means that this grade will likely dominate the industry. Not a bad thing for sure, but as some years won’t produce as much Golden Color/Delicate Taste (like this year) or Dark Color/Robust Taste (like last year), Amber Color/Rich Taste will be the steady eddy.

We’re cheerfully embracing the change here, and will be framing some of the old cap stickers for sugarhouse nostalgia.

Note: thank you again to Marin Horikawa of Moderate Breeze Designs for the design brilliance and to The Sticky Brand for the printing. Both are located in Burlington, Vermont.

SPECIAL SHADE OF COOL

Autumn gets all the glory in Vermont. People travel hundreds of miles to see the truly amazing red and orange foliage. There’s speculation for weeks about whether or not this will be a good foliage season or whether or not we’ve hit “peak foliage” and tens-of-thousands of photos are taken across the state. The spectacle is absolutely stunning.

Every spring, right about now in the deep part of May, I am thrown by the spring foliage. Perhaps it’s the shock of seeing the color green after so many months of seeing just white, brown, grey, and the occasional blue. The change of color can be truly blinding and disorienting.

But who knew there were so many different shades of green? How is it that there is such range of textures and the subtle differences of color across this wild green spectrum? It’s as if a box of green crayons exploded across the hills – only better. It’s a unbelievable show, and Vermonters tend to have it all to themselves because by mid-June, the colors will have evened out into “hot-summer green,” but right now every species has its own special shade of cool.

SNOW MELT FAST

The snow is more-or-less gone. It seems odd to be saying this like, perhaps, it’s not, but there are still little pockets in dark hemlock stands, on the north sides of some buildings, and along roads where it was piled up high in banks. It also indicates how cold March and April were: March barely above freezing and even today, May 5, waking up to 37F and raining.

So while the leaves still haven’t flushed out and the spring ephemerals are slow to cover Bobo’s Mountain, there is an up-side. Mud season was once again a non issue, something Vermonters do not take for granted. We notice it. Because when it’s bad – like it was in 2012 – it is bad.

And then I think maybe (just a hopeful maybe) the cold will reduce the black-fly population that’s about to hatch.

In general, when the snow melts, it melts fast. There’s some tipping point in the snow structure, heat absorption, and sun strength that makes it go. I was able to monitor it this year thanks to a Sharpie and a pea trellis.

From March 27 to April 8 the snow melted 18” in 11 days, Of course this was a south-facing garden. On April 8, there was still 2 feet of snow in the woods. Here’s the breakdown:

Date                             Snow Melt in Inches                  % Melted

March 27-29                 3.5                                                  19.4%

March 29-30                 1.75                                                 9.7%

March 30-April 1          0.75                                                  4.1%

April 1-2                        1                                                      5.6%

April 2-3                       1.5                                                    8.3%

April 3-4                       1.75                                                  9.7%

April 4-6                       1.5                                                    8.3%

April 6-7                       1                                                       5.6%

April 7-8                       5.25                                                 29.2%

On average the snow melted 1.63” a day or 9% of its total.

I wonder how fast this little guy grows? Fast enough that we could tap it in 2024. Now that’s a growth rate.

REFLECTIONS ON A SEASON

The 2014 season has ended. We boiled for the last time on Monday afternoon – pushing thick sap through the pans, clogging the filter press every few draws, and making super-strong, super-dark syrup. Blackjack syrup or Black Gold: one of Bobo’s favorites.

Syrup made: 550 gallons, a 35% decrease from last year. A lot of dark syrup.

Sap boiled: ~ 34,000 gallons.

Sugar content of sap: varied through the season but averaged 1.4%.

Number of boils: 16

Amount of wood used: 10 cords.

Sap ran: 26 days.

Season started: March 29 – while there was a quick small run for three days in early March, the sap never truly ran until the 29th, making it the latest start in recent memory. “Like the Old Days,” they said.

Season ended: April 21.

In General: Our experience seemed to mirror that across the region: super-late start, average production year, mucho dark syrup made. The Guys at the equipment stores said that even the light syrup tasted dark. Producers with a vacuum system seemed to fare better than those without. Sugar makers just running buckets or gravity lines might have had a poor season while those with vacuum systems veered more towards average. The Guys were okay with it though; they had already sold a few vacuum pumps by the time I’d talked with them.

On the Mountain: We knew how good we had it last year with brand new equipment and fresh tubing in the woods. This year, everything was less tight, more leaky, less efficient. Need to step up woods work and equipment maintenance in 2015.

Hard to predict and while we certainly want to be ready for an early March run, it wasn’t really necessary to be tapped out the last week in February.

You can never clean the pans too often. Once it gets warm, sap gets the funk. We had to dump much of the sap in our back pans twice. Remember learning in biology class how bacteria replicates exponentially? This demonstration would win ribbons.

Once again, I am reminded how closely held we are to the winter-spring transition. We begin in the woods in deep-winter February. The first boils are cold, quiet ones – wearing jackets and hats. Everything is still frozen solid. By the end we’re boiling with the doors open in T-shirts listening to the Red Sox, water run down the hill, and the wood frogs in the pond. Soon I’ll be back in the woods with sneakers and bug spray watching the spring ephemeral flowers pop off the mountains.

There is nothing subtle about this transition. I love being pulled through it covered in sticky syrup.

ICE OUT

The sap hasn’t begun to flow in earnest here on Bobo’s Mountain. We’ve had some good afternoons where, for a few hours, the sap will come down in steadily and slowly, but it seems to shut down as soon as the sun angles toward the horizon. The 1900-gallon bulk tank is filling a few hundred gallons at a time (in contrast, when the sap is pouring, it fills twice in day). So, despite the date, Daylight Saving(s), the return of the robins and mourning doves, spring hasn’t arrived. This feels especially true when one sees the town tractor heaping and spreading the snowbanks along our road in preparation for the 9-20” of snow and sleet coming today and tomorrow.

This time last year we had already made 150 gallons of syrup. And anxious thoughts of “will we make as much as last year?” and “when will we have the first boil” run alongside the eager late spring/early summer anticipation of asparagus poking through the garden bed and beach vacations. Despite the winter weariness, there’s a lot to be done before we can relax into May. Stay present my friends.

Vermonters have always had tried-and-true methods for dealing with the anticipation of spring. One such is ice out: betting on the time and day when the ice is out of the local pond. Probably the most famous one is Joe’s Pond Ice Out up in Danville and Cabot https://www.joespondvermont.com/iceout.php but even locally we have less-official systems for guessing ice out that usually involve standing around in the local markets and drinking coffee.

All of us on Bobo’s Mountain are interested in tracking the date of ice out too although not in our frog pond, in our bulk tank. Because of last week’s polar vortex, we have a 400-gallon sap ice cube floating in it. It is doing a swell job keeping the sap underneath it nice and cold but is taking up quite a bit of precious room. And since we moved the tank undercover on the north side of the sugarhouse, it isn’t receiving a whole lot of warm afternoon sun. So who knows when ice out will be but perhaps you could visit with a beverage of your choice and an ice pick.