Jeff Moore of Windswept Maple Farm in Loudon uses his foot to close the door of the wood-fired evaporator at their maple processing building. It was warm enough this week to make syrup. (GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff)
A seasoned maple syrup pro can tell a lot about the temperatures of a given season by looking at the color of the syrup. Darker syrup correlates to warmer temperatures, and vice versa. In this shot taken at Mapletree Farm in Concord, the first two bottles on the left are from this year — one for each boil owner Dean Wilber has done so far. After those two, the rest are bottles from last year’s season, in order. By looking at this photo, we can tell that last year started off a little warm (the first bottle sap is on the darker side), then it cooled off for a little while, which is why you see the very light colors in the middle. Then, at the end of the season when it was the warmest, the syrup was the darkest. (JON BODELL / Insider staff) JON BODELL / Insider staff
