M: March, M: Maple syrup

We are making maple syrup this year.  We put taps in the trees last Fri and gathered about 16 gals of sap for the week.  We started to boil it down to syrup, but now the last two days have been cold so everything came to a stop.  Hopefully the weather is correct and tomorrow will be a promising day.  The sap is really good this year (ok, I'll take your word for it), which means a high sugar content, resulting in less sap per syrup ratio.  "It is running about 32 gallons of sap per 1 gallon of syrup."  (Wow, that sounded pretty good.  Let me tell you, our learning curve has been exponential this week--learn/read on the fly.  Thankfully the boil is a slow process so we can stay on top of what is next.)

Step 1: drill

Step 2: tap

Step 2.5: take a picture of the neighbors yard because it looks cool.  

Our neighbor Bill, 78 years old, is teaching us what the heck to do.

 Step 3: Collect sap every day when we get home from work.

No pictures.

Step 4: Evaporate the water from the sap/boil it down. 

 Step 4.5: hang out in the garage.

Next steps: stay tuned.

(maybe Sunday or Monday)