This is tough work BCC. But very rewarding too! Thanks for watching and commenting! Kevin

Thanks for watching Pibble. We appreciate the comment. We have lots of videos about our farm and life here in the middle of nowhere! Hope you will consider becoming a subscriber to our channel! Thanks Kevin

It is very interesting here in the middle of nowhere, convenient to nothing. I started the channel to share with folks the nuttiness of our farm. Folks didn't really believe me until I began showing them. No two days are alike! Thanks for watching and posting a comment! More videos on the way! Kevin

I call it "curing" the hay. In this case, we did leave it outdoors for a night. And we take temperature/moisture readings right after we bale it then monitor it while it is cooling. Any bale that exceeds my comfort zone is placed outside. It doesn't happen often that we need to move a bale because we tend to get the hay down to 10-12% before baling. Thanks for watching! Baling video coming out soon! Kevin

That’s a good idea. My tractor doesn’t make tight turns. When I do my next cutting I’ll try your suggestion. Thanks for sharing. Kevin.

Ms. Swain, First let me say, thanks for watching our video and sharing your question. Not many folks know that maple syrup is made in Virginia. I didn't for many years. After moving here we decided to make syrup ourselves. We could not become just another producer so we decided to make our farm USDA organic including our sugar bush (maple trees and the forest around them). The main reason we felt organics was the best way to enter the market is because there are many wonderful producers in the area that make delicious maple syrup. We wanted to differentiate ourselves from other producers and going organic, as most producers are in Vermont and farther north are these days made sense. Also, organics to us is a great way to steward our land. No chemicals! Being the first and currently only maple syrup producer in Virginia is something we like to share with folks. If you make it to Highland County Virginia, you will find wonderful maple syrup unique to each farm that produces it. Another thing that makes our syrup so delicious is that we use only water from our farm which is made into syrup in our barn. We don't bring water in from other farms nor blend other syrups from other farms with ours to call it ours. It is the purest syrup you will taste. Additionally we do not blend within the color spectrum. This means if the trees were producing a light syrup that day, that is what goes into the bottles. If they producer a dark, you get a dark. The blending is not about organics as much as it is about purity of flavor. Organics is about process, paperwork and pesticides. A lot of folks don't think about pesticides in trees but over the most recent decades you have to think about the insects that have come into the forests such as gypsy moths, ash bores and no lantern flies. All of which are eliminated or reduced by pesticides. This doesn't happen on our farm. You did mention tapping trees in your question. On an organic farm we are limited to the max number of taps we can use in a tree. Our tapping parameters are based on the tree's diameter. No organic farms can tap a tree as many times as they like. Of course, doing so could damage a tree but they are governed by any regulations. We are governed and inspected. Meaning, each year a third party inspector comes to our farm and inspects both the woods and the number of taps we are using on our trees. Lastly there are many taps that are no approved for organic use. They have chemicals or compounds in them that are not approved for organics. Thanks for taking the time to watch our videos and posting your question. More videos with the kids coming out soon. Kevin ps. Have you tried our syrup?

@@MillGapFarms I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear your passion for sugaring! And I think that’s so awesome that you are finding success with your Sugarbush in Virginia! I’ll be honest it wasn’t until last year that I really understood the scope of how many other states outside of Northern New England had the potential to do so! So I wanted to explain a little bit more about my background before asking a few more questions!! Currently we are still running a small Sugarbush in Central New Hampshire, making around 500 gallons a year, but i’m grandfathered into the business. Which is great in someways but it does stunt my understanding of new practices and concepts! Although as a dairy farmer I can also attest to thoroughly understanding organic farming! And I am wholeheartedly in support of you advertising your product! I guess in my experience I’ve just found that for us and every other Producer I know, it would be impractical to use pesticides, or herbicides near or around our sugar bushes! Although you bring up another really good point I never considered worrying about the tap we were using! Let alone watering?! I’m really interested in understanding that as well! Are you PLANTING rock maples?!?! I guess long story short I grew up among a whole bundle of Yankees who are still trying to understand why The USDA doesn’t let them dangle salted pork over there evaporators anymore to keep the foam down! And yes I would love to try some of your maple syrup perhaps we could trade! Other random questions about your reply! 1. Why would anyone mix grades of syrup? I guess that just seems impractical unless you are producing a small enough amount that it is all stored in a single container! 2 most of the rest of the practices you described are common knowledge but I’m curious that you mentioned inspections! Is that simply a part of being an approved organic producer? Anyway thank you so much for your time! -Ty Swain

Ty Swain, First let me apologize for my delay in responding. I have to say this is a weak point for me with regards to being a creator. I don't know how (yet) to filter to get the newer comments. I am glad I found yours. To answer your question about mixing grades. To me grades are still subjective. Although based on color standards, they are not 100% accurate unless a bottle of the syrup inside the barrel is attached to the barrel. It seems impossible to match grades of syrup perfectly. With this being said, it can be close. For many folks it seems that the way to more production or inventory is to buy in bulk and mix with their or just sell the bulk. We don't do that. Or even mix withing color spectrum. By the way, we don't grade our syrup. I don't see that is necessary at this point in time. To answer your second question, the inspections are part of the organic certification process. They can take 4-6 hours and sometimes longer, depending on the stage of your certification and the inspector. Ours usually takes 4-6 hours. We don't currently plant maples. We need a big part of our farm in forage vs trees. We are blessed to have a lot of maples of all types. Thanks for your comment. If I don't respond in the future, reach out to me via our website www.millgapfarms.com. Send me your contact info and I'll send you a bottle of our syrup. Thanks Kevin