Tap that Tree!

It's sugarin' season people! That's right, the weather is finally warm enough during the day and cold enough at night for the sap to run. So this past weekend Marc headed out to the trees we had marked in the fall and tapped them.

The first step in the tapping process was identifying trees, which we did in the fall when they still had leaves. We identified 5 sugar maples that we hoped would be big enough and provide enough sap for us to try our hand at maple syrup making. Marc is hopeful that we'll be able to get 10 gallons of sap out of each tree. It can take up to 50 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup so hopefully we'll be able to make almost a gallon of syrup this year.

Over the last few weeks we've been collecting supplies to get ready for sugarin'. My parents have been drinking lots of milk so that we can save the gallon plastic jugs. Marc bought some taps from the general store in town, and I took care of the baby.

Marc used a 3/8ths drill bit to make a hole (1 1/2 inch deep) in the south side of each tree. He then used a hammer to tap-tap-tap the metal spouts into the tree.

Drill Hole

Add Spout

As soon as the spout was placed, you could see the sap beginning to run out the end. Marc then attached the milk jug to the spout to catch the sap.

Since we tapped the trees we've been out a few times to see how much sap has been collected. So far we probably have about a quart of sap. We're hoping that if the weather stays good we'll be able to start boiling maybe as early as next week. Until then we'll be checking our milk jugs everyday and emptying them out as they fill up.