Tapping Maple Trees

I live in a house surrounded by Manitoba Maples (also known as Box Elders). Although these trees don't give the same syrup as trees found in Quebec, the sap can still be made into a tasty syrup. So this spring I finally had the equipment and time to tap them. I had two taps (one of which broke... my own fault). Here is a picture of our pot hanging to catch the drips.



The drips came at a steady pace. The temperature last night when we tapped was +8 celcius and it got down to -3 celcius at night. Today it looks like it's going to rain and there's a heavy wind, but it's +3 celcius. So I brought it in before the rain. This means we only collected from 6 p.m. to noon and still got a hefty amount:



Thus ends our tree-tapping experiment for this year. This was simply to see what it was all about and whether it was possible. I am boiling down the sap as I type and have vowed to try again next year. One thing I will do differently is buy metal spigots instead of cheap plastic. Tap on!