I vaguely remember reading that you have to boil off some huge quantity of water to get really good syrup. I don't remember the numbers, but it was a LOT.

Have you ever done it? I'll bet it tastes wonderful...

Sugar content varies, so it can take from 20 to 40 plus gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup.

Last year, I only got 8 quarts, as the sap flow was suddenly over when our temps, in Michigan in March, went into extreme record range in the 80s and even a few 90s.

My record year was, IIRC, 27 quarts.

I know you like to cook, so I'll bet you do some wonderful things with it!

I use a little in cooking.

I make pancakes or waffles two or three times a year.

The lucky recipients!

I use it in my BBQ rub, but it's so hard to find & expensive,

I never had much luck with that, mine always turned into hard lumpy cakes. Then, I would have to shave it off or put it in a food processor to use it.

This tells the right way to do it. I didn't know about stirring it, so that might change my resuts.

http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/oneida/Agriculture/Ag/maple/Making%20Granulated%20Maple%20Sugar.pdf

The last I bought any, a couple of years ago, it was over $10.00/ lb. Now I know why.

I'll leave the sap gathering to the young bucks. Nothing but Grade 'B' syrup will be made in my Sugar House; ambrosia from the gods.

here too, in Western Mass.

I always look forward to seeing the lines and buckets come out, as it's one of the first signs of spring here.

Then it's the skunk cabbage...

The return of the robins

The peepers

Anyway, I have a small red maple tree just outside the kitchen window. A couple of years ago Mr Pipi accidentally hit it with the plow after a large snowstorm and took out a big piece of the trunk. I was surprised at how much sap leaked out of it.

The wound is healing well, thank goodness. That tree has a real will to survive after being assaulted by leaf eating caterpillars, the plow, woodpeckers, boring beetles, and one time a black bear climbed it trying to get over the fence and broke off some branches in the middle.

No real signs of spring yet here except I heard a cardinal singing yesterday.