Another fun learning experience for the southern kids.....tapping the maple trees, gathering buckets of sap, and boiling it down to make sweet, 100% pure maple syrup! It's very basic process, but rather time and energy consuming. First, the maple trees are "tapped" - a hole is drilled and a spout inserted. A bucket is hung on the spout and the sap flows into it. The rate of flow varies depending on the weather. Sharp cold nights and very warm sunny days make the sap run best.
The buckets are emptied daily into large storage barrels. Every couple of days our neighbor, "the maple syrup maker", fills large vats with sap, brings it to a boil over a hot wood fire, and keeps the top skimmed clean while the water evaporates from the sap. It can take 12 hours of boiling 40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup!
