Tap maple trees to make syrup

“Bill drilled the first tap, the rest was up to me. (As a nurse, the saying goes: See one, do one, teach one.) He held the drill at a slight upward angle so that the sap would flow downwards. The bark was drilled away first, followed by lighter-colored wood shavings. He stopped drilling when the tape mark on the bit reached the tree. We cleaned out the shavings and immediately, the sap began to drip. Then, he gently tapped in the spile, just enough to be snug. You don’t want it to be too tight because you can split the wood. I could see the sap going down the tubing, and hear each drip hitting the empty bottom of the bucket.”

“Once the trees were all tapped, every other day, I emptied the buckets and placed empty ones in their place. I couldn’t let them fill all the way to the top, because sap would slosh out of the hole in the bucket. These buckets can be very heavy when full, especially when you are walking across snow and any icy driveway. If my husband hadn’t helped lug these buckets up from the yard, I don’t think I could have done it. I would have needed smaller buckets that didn’t hold as much sap. That would have meant daily trips in and out of the cold.”

“We use buckets on our homestead. I’m not a fan of plastic in contact with my food, especially when it’s going to be out in the sun, exposed to UV all day long. [...] The thing is…collecting sap buckets is the best part. Taking a walk to visit my trees on the first warm days of spring, with the melting snow crunching under my feet is just the therapy I need after a long Vermont winter.”