From Start To Finish

So i have been pretty busy for the last week the sap finally started flowing properly now that the weather has been cold enough to draw the sap up from the tree roots. I figured it was time to show you all the boiling process in pictures from start to finish. The first step is collecting the sap then we slowly add the sap to the pot on the fire so that we can keep the sap from cooling off to much . Then the magic happens albeit at a very slow and tedious pace. We keep boiling untill we have usually at least two gallons of finished syrup in the pot. This takes about a day to happen. Then we bring it into the house to finish it off on the stove because it is easier to get the syrup to the proper temperature of 219 degrees celcious which is the temperature it has to reach to officially be maple syrup. Then we fine filter it for a second time and bottle it when it is boiling so it seals properly. Well that is the basic process of how to make maple syrup i will have more pictures to add in the next week or two. The pictures above show me doing a few of the activities involved with making syrup. The top two show the buckets i use to collect and store the sap.I had to buy some garbage cans to help deal with the surplus as there is to much flowing in a single day for the fire to be able to boil it all down in a day. The next show the pot boiling down and me with the cart lugging back another round of full buckets. The following ones show the two ways that sap is harvested from the tree the metal bucket and tap are the tradtional method but the plastic tap and tubing is the modern method that is used by the majority of large scale syrup operations now. The pictures below that are of me goofing off and of a drop of sap which is a hard picture to properly time. The last pictures in this epic post shows raw sap against some of the finished product. I will post more in syrup pictures and stories in the next few weeks as i get ready for the spring.