The Sap's A Runnin'!!

Two days after our trial tap Zenka installed this year's taps - 20 in all, I believe. Last year we had 10, which equated to three days of boiling and maybe a gallon of sap. This year the buckets seem to be filling up much faster than last year...this week alone we've collected enough sap to use our 55 gallon storage drum. We mounted the drum up above our evaporator and have connected a stainless steel sink bay to serve as the funnel. Climb up, pour sap in sink, rinse, lather, repeat...

Our best producers in terms of volume seem to be the maples back by the spring. This bucket was emptied last night and overnight has since filled back up again. You need about 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup, but the lower the sugar content (or higher water content, whichever way you choose to look at it) the more sap you need. Since we don't have any fancy hydrometers yet, we don't know if these super-sappers are sucking up excess water being so close to the spring. Making syrup is a lot of "live and learn.."