Dark Hollow Sugar Camp

03/03/2025

Mid season update. This year has been one heck of a ride. We started off with everything breaking but finally got on the right track. We have over 200 gallon of syrup jugged up and ready to sell and started filling barrels. We are up to 283.5 gallon and looks like a great week ahead to fill more barrels up. We are going to push for a goal of over 400 gallons of syrup. I had to go get a bigger sap tank for more storage at the sugar house so we can hold more sap on the bigger runs. We will see what Mother Nature has in store for us for the rest of maple season! 🍁🍁

02/16/2025

Today we boiled for the 4th time and hoping the sap runs tonight when it thaws out so we can boil tomorrow. We will be well over 100 gallons of syrup tomorrow before the big cold snap! The cold will not affect the taps and will give me more time to add more taps. Hoping for a long season. The weather after the cold looks perfect! 🍁🍁

02/01/2025

It’s been a busy few days. We have around 1200 taps done with about 100 more to go! We are getting the first sap of the season. Hoping for the best season yet! 🍁🍁

12/09/2024

Update from the sugar house. With maple season approaching very quickly I started replacing a section of tubing that was put in 10 years ago. I’ve learned so much over the years and this tubing was not up to par anymore. I am also working on the new woods in Everett. All the drop lines are made I just need to install them and I’m switching to a new style saddle to minimize vacuum leaks. We will be making syrup in less than 2 months! 🍁🍁🍁

11/28/2024

Happy Thanksgiving! 🍁🍁🍁

08/03/2024

We made the trip to New York yesterday to pick up a new to me 600 GPH RO. This machine will greatly cut down boiling times and will allow me to tap more trees in the future! Now to get sap tanks in place and everything plumbed up. We will be sugaring in about 5 months!! I’d like to thank my dad for the help getting it and installing it! 🍁🍁🍁

03/05/2024

With the very mild weather we finished our season yesterday. We tapped less trees this year and definitely relied on Mother Nature to hit our goal of 200 gallons. In the end we made 235 gallons of wonderful tasting syrup! It has been an incredible year with support and new customers! I can’t thank everyone enough! We have big plans next season to expand and potentially add up to 1000 more taps and get a bigger reverse osmosis to handle that volume of sap. Our next goal is to make 400 gallons of syrup. If you work hard and have dedication there is no goal that is unachievable. In the meantime we have lots of work to do pulling taps, cleaning everything up, and then running new tubing. I will posts updates on here!

02/20/2024

A busy day lead to an even busier day today but we made the news and it went very well! Lots of sap to boil tomorrow afternoon and evening. Sugaring weather looks very promising this week! 🍁🍁

Cold weather benefits local business in Bedford County

02/19/2024

Should be back to boiling syrup tomorrow evening! Soaking and washing the front pan tonight and tomorrow and we will be back in business. The sugar sand (nitre) is awful this year. Cleaning pans is the not so fun part of making syrup. It’s been a steady and productive season so far! 🍁🍁

02/07/2024

After feeling a little late to the game this year we are finally getting all the kinks worked out for the 2024 maple season. Lots of new things to learn with adding a high vacuum pump, releaser, and new air filter press. We got the vacuum up where it needs to be and boiled 4 times now and made alot of syrup. Now fingers crossed that we get the perfect weather for a successful season!

01/02/2024

I haven’t posted anything here in awhile but with the new year it’s time to start thinking about maple season. We have done some updates at the sugar house with adding a new vacuum pump and a second mainline to the woods to get better vacuum to the trees. We also added another section of trees and plan to add more if the weather stays cold for awhile. Hoping Mother Nature cooperates this year and gives us a plentiful crop. It’s been a rough couple seasons the past 2 years. Pray for a deep freeze and slow warm up 🍁🍁🍁