Sapping

This slow sluggish spring has been good for one thing "Sapping." The maple trees have been slowly waking up and dripping. The snow and rain the last 2 days has not slowed things down. This morning we got over 2 buckets of sap from 35 or so trees. Some are not producing any yet and some trees are in full production. We use both bags and plastic containers to catch the sap. Nice thing about the containers is just take off the top and spin the container upside down and pour into the bucket Following the trail to the taps in the snow. The blue bag in the background is the destination Woods still full of snow, walking back from Eagles Nest our maple honey hole Not sure what you are doing with the buckets but happy to have a reason to run with you through the snow and chase squirrels For now we have been slowly cooking on the woodstove. Our first batch of syrup we have been working on for a week adding more sap to the buckets each day. Most do not cook much in their house and keep it outside due to the steam causing some sugar residue on the walls. We are just slowly cooking these 2 pots and so far have kept up and the moisture is welcome in the dry house for now. We start producing more than 2 buckets a day we will be headed outside to the open fire and evaporation pan. Til then it is just nice to have these 2 slow pots bubbling away on the wood stove slowly boiling down