It is close to the last day for ordering to be relatively sure the order will arrive before Christmas. I will need to get the order by 12/13 or 12/14 to be able to ship the next day. Orders after that may or may not arrive by Christmas. Sales have been real good all year and I’m very low on stock. I have run out of all Golden syrup, only have a few half pints in Amber, I’m out of quarts except a few in Dark and I have no very dark.
Year to date my sales have far exceeded all previous years, likely because of Covid 19. With far more people working from home, and not having to commute, they are making breakfast at home and many use maple syrup with that breakfast. I’m eagerly looking forward to the 2021 season and hope it starts early or I’ll be out of all my syrup except the bourbon barrel aged. While that is my best seller, it is not what some people want. While some use it like traditional maple syrup, most only use it to sweeten coffee, as an ice cream topping, to baste meat while cooking, to add flavor to recipes in cooking and other uses but not as a pancake, waffle, french toast or other cereal or fruit topping.
Order soon to get your order in before I run out until the 2021 season. That could start as early as mid February or as late as the tail end of March or even early April. It all depends on the weather. For the season to start I need freezing nights and warm days. Once it starts it can run for 2 or sometimes 3 days without a freeze, but that is somewhat rare to get real good sap flow for over a day and a half until mid season. The season then ends when the trees open their buds. A season can be any where from just over 2 weeks to over 6 weeks and a couple have lasted 7-8 weeks. 3-5 is most typical. Mother nature is in charge of that.
I still have a good inventory in my Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup. It has proven for the last 3 years to be my best selling syrup and that is partially why I’ve run out or very low on my other syrups. I used them to make more bourbon aged. That is a process I need to start 6-9 months ahead depending on the size of the bourbon barrel I can get. A 10 gal needs 6-7 months to age and a 15 gal needs 9-10 months to age in order for it to attain the degree of flavor my customers have shown they like. To date the largest barrel I’ve used has been 15 gal and I far prefer 10 gal. However the 10’s are hard to find, most distilleries use 15, 20 and all the way up to 53 gal. I can only use a barrel once, because the flavor has been diluted too much for a second batch. Each time I start for example a 15 gal batch (my last one was 15) that is 30 half gallons or 60 qts that are not there for regular syrup sales.