Sugar Bush 2008

When my parents down-sized a few years ago one of my brothers and I split up the basic equipment they had for making maple syrup. My last attempt to make maple syrup was about seven or eight years ago and I only enjoyed moderate success. Until this year I did not have much time for anything.

Spring 2008 in Michigan was perfect for tapping trees. We had a run of about two weeks where the daytime temperatures were above 32F and nighttime temperatures dropped below freezing. This result in lots of high quality sap. Here is a photo of some of the trees I tapped out back:

My original goal was to build a wood burning boiler yet I ran into some roadblocks. I began making plans in January but just couldn't get the thing completed by early March. Thus I resorted to propane and a three burner camp stove I picked up at a local sporting goods store. Here is a photo of that operation (and no, it is not a meth lab).

My final tally was about 4 gallons of pure maple syrup. I did not bother to keep a close count on on how many gallons of sap I collected but it was somewhere between 150 and 200 gallons. Here is a photo of some of the final product.