Bought maple taps today!

I am so excited!  The hubs agreed to try out maple tree tapping this year.  We have about 5 maple trees in our yard.  I only bought 6 taps, 3 per tree, just to give it a try. 

Maple syrup making facts: which I do not claim to be the expert on by any means.  These are just things I have researched and learned.

1.Depending on how much you know about the process of making maple syrup.  You may or may not know that it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. 

2.Sugar maple trees are the best because they have the highest sugar content, but you can also use Silver maple, red maple and boxelder tree sap.  With the last three it will just take more sap to make the finished syrup.   

What happens when you decide in the middle of winter that tapping your maple trees sounds like fun!!?  You may run into a small problem, What kind of maple tree is it???  Did you know there were so many kinds of maple trees?  I didn't.  I mentioned 4 there are more than that.  Some produce a milky sap that does not produce syrup.  Some have a higher sugar content than others.  Tell me how does one identify a maple tree with no leaves?  Well I am going to try and if worse comes to worse I we will tap them and find out later.  It will be mystery syrup....mmmmm :).  

Here is the link to the taps I bought.  http://andersonsmaplesyrup.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=464