Maple Syrup

There was an article in the local paper last winter about a guy making his own maple syrup a few miles up the road. We could see him and his syrup collection devices (blue bags) when driving by and I tucked it away in the back of my mind. Last week I determined I indeed had some sugar maples on the land. Well... thanks to a little stoking from "Mr. Vector" at work, I came home and tapped several trees over the weekend. I stopped in Ace Hardware and picked up 50' of 1/4" tubing on Friday. I drilled (3) 1/4" holes about 5 feet high in each large tree and stuck the tube in each hole about an inch. I then hung a milk jug on the trunk about 3 feet high with 3 holes drilled in the cap and put then ends of the tubes inside.

The best time to collect sugar water from the trees is after a freeze. The trees really pump the sap after they warm up from the freezing weather. I did not know what to expect. I tapped 2 trees on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. The temperature got up to about 40 today so I had to go see when I got home from work on Monday. The jugs were full! I was expecting there to only be a cup or 2 at best. That was 1 1/2 gallons in 24 hours. I tapped another 20" tree, added with another jug and emptied the full ones. I will try making syrup when I get about 8-10 gallons of the sugar water.