Well, our first attempts at maple syrup making turned out to be a good learning experience, as we had hoped, plus some great syrup, sap and fermented sap. We learned that elderberry twigs will work in a pinch, but you do lose quite a bit of sap. A lot of folks cut up PVC.. that would definitely work better, but it sure isn't natural. I'm thinking about hollowed out bones.. natural and more effective.

We caught the syrup with gallon jugs with their lids on. Some days, they needed to be emptied twice, and our trees are only 16" or so. Next year, we may use 2 gallon buckets instead.

We boiled the syrup down in stock pots on an old cast iron wood stove outside. Our first batch ended up with a hint of smokey flavor, so we got some stove pipe to get the smoke high and out of the pots. We would do better to have a large flat pan as it evaporates better with greater surface area. We found that it was better to boil down a smaller quantity at a time, because it was necessary to really keep it boiling, and the fuller the pot, the harder it was to do that. It is done when the bubbles start to get thick on top.

Our 2nd batch was caramelly rich and delicious. We ended up with a gallon all together. It was a very bad season because it got too warm too quickly.

My favorite part about the whole process was drinking the fresh sap. I drank about 2 qts. a day and could really feel the cleansing and healing from it. It also bonded me to the forest . We had some left over that I allowed to ferment in a glass jar just by leaving it at room temperature, covered. It was quite a tasty and refreshing drink.. sort of like lemony water.