Maple Sugaring (How Maple Syrup is Born)

A dozen youtube videos and few weekends ago, Dylan decided to tap some maple trees on a very particular weekend--a freezing day followed by the first not freezing days when sap starts to melt. I thought this was a very unique idea, but it turns out most people you talk to around here are connected to at least one person who has tried to tap a tree. Dylan picked some maples in his parent's woods, but we've seen bags of sap hanging off trees in residential neighborhoods…

After gallons of collection and enough boiling to make everything in the house soggy, Dylan had half a liter of the most delicious syrup I have ever tasted. Before this, the only syrup I'd experienced cost  $2.99 and was mainly made of high fructose corn syrup and artificial caramel coloring.

Dylan's collection buckets--I think we were all surprised to find these full of sap on a daily basis. I thought sap would be thicker and sticky, but actually it looks and tastes like water.

Dylan didn't think this photo should be included

Boiling off the water

Filtering

 Sanitizing Jars

 Concentrating

 Bottling

 Ta-da!

As Dylan's Dad puts it:  "thats really cool…..but that was a lot of work."