Tapping the maples

This is working a little backwards, to show how we tap the tree, after we show how we cook they syrup down, but that's just the way things so together sometimes.

There are may ways to draw the maple sap out of the tree, and our way is determined by our frugal approach to everything. Traditionally, a hole is drilled in the trunk of a large tree. When you get to that time of year when it freezes at night, and gets above freezing during the day, the sap moves up and down the tree through the layers just below the bark.

A hole is usually drilled about 3 inches into the tree and a metal spile tapped into the hole. Then a metal bucket is hung on the spile, and it catches the sap as it drips out. The flow can vary from an almost steady trickle, to a slow drip, to nothing. Then the workers trudge through the mud or snow from tree to tree to collect the many gallons of sap. It takes 37 to 50 gallons of sap to cook down into one gallon of delicious, sweet syrup, and it's heavy.

Modern large scale operations use plastic taps, connected by tubing that flows many feet to central catch basins-sometimes connecting whole mountainsides. We've adapted the techniques for our own frugal lifestyle, and don't make a lot. We only cook a small amount for our own use and don't sell any, so we can just work by hand. Jim carves his own spiles out of sumac branches, and we use short hoses to direct the sap into rinsed, recycled plastic jugs.

The sap rests in the jugs until we can get time to cook it down. The pictures shows Jim telling our granddaughter about the process. Doesn't she look like she understands the whole thing?