Despite the initial dripping when we tapped a black birch Monday, it turns out the first week of March is too early for significant accumulation after all. Four days later, we'd only racked up a quarter of a cup of frozen sap --- no wonder since the daytime highs have only been reaching the low forties.

With another warming trend on the horizon, I'm hopeful we'll get more sap soon. There are half a dozen sizable birches in that same area, actually, so the tricky part will be deciding whether I want to tap them all or keep our project on the fun, hobby level.

Of course, since I can take the goats out with me to both tap and collect sap, the fun quotient may well remain high even if I tap all half dozen. Every project is more fun with goats.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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