2026 Sugaring Season

We tapped aboutt 5500 taps on Feb 14th, did line inspections February 15th and delivered about 2000 gallons of sap on Feb 17th. After the 17th the weather turned cold and the sap stopped flowing until 2/26. The sap sugar content was 1.3% (Homewoods) and 1.4% (Harmons). Thats the lowest sugar content we've seen in starting the season There was about 4 inches of snow in the woods which has resulted in minimal ground frost. Tapping crew was Brandon and Jordan Clare, Dylan Olk, Greg and Nancy Weiss Saueressig and Dave and Kevin Weiss. We found about 8 tress not tapped in both woods so the crew did a great job of doing close to 100% of the drops. The weather was 20 degrees above average from the 13th to the 17th which melted most of the snow and started to wake up the trees. .

A warmup started the 26th (42 degrees) and the 27th (52 degrees) before going below freezing til March 3rd. The sap ran really well on the 27th - expect to get an additional 4000 gallons. Base on the forecast we will have a good sap flow all next week with temperatures above average.

3/8 - A warm front moved in early Sunday morning and triggered the largest sap run of the year and in many years - about 12,000 gallons in 36 hours. The temperature rose to 58 degrees both 3/8 and 3/9. All systems worked so we had no issues. About 20 years ago we had the same type warm front happen overnight but we had a frozen drain line and lost much of the sap. Harmons was running 650 gallons per hour and the homewoods 200 gallons per hour at eh hightests rate. As of 3/9 we had collected about 26,000 gallons with another 2,000 in the collection tanks. We have now collected more sap in the homewoods than all of 2025. The rework has paid off. The sugar content is running about 2.0 percent for the homewoods and about 2.2 for Harmons. On Saturday we buried our Uncle Galen Radle in St. Josephs cemetery in Arkansaw WI. He learned the syrup m;aking process from his father George and made syrup many years at the Harvey Radle farm.

3/22 - The Blizzard of 2026 ( 3/14-3/16 ) left 20 inches of snow in the sugarbush and sub freezing temps till 3/18. On 3/19 @ 10AM the sap started running and didn't stop until 3/22 @ 7AM. The Temperatures stayed above freezing and culminated with a high of 75 degrees on 3/21. It was the largest continuous sap sun in Weiss Woods history (since 1991) and the most in many decades in Wisconsin history. We collected 37,000 gallons of sap which made about 950 gallons of syrup. Total to date for the season is 82,000 gallons of sap and 2,000 gallons of syrup . The weather has now cooled so we expect another good week ahead.

On 3/21 we had the Webster family of Spring Valley for a pancake breakfast at the visitors center and then a tour of the sugarbush and sugaring house. Kev (Lori )and Mike (Darcy) Webster (1st cousins) and their families attended as well ast Bob Forrest of Glenwood City and Wanda Traynor. Kev's daughter Corey and Husband Chris and son Weston. Mikes son James and Sam Webster