Sugaring season- time to tap!

Well, we are about a week late tapping this year, but the weather over the last week was probably not very good sugaring weather anyway.  So, today we got out to tap our two sugar maples!

We use TreeSaver taps which are a little bit smaller than the "standard" 7/16" taps.  We drill a 5/16" hole, about 1.5 inches deep, at a slightly upward angle.  Then gently tap the plastic tap into the hole...

Then connect the tubing to our collection bucket, and we're ready to go! 

During the week, we store the sap in a 13 gallon pail buried in snow to keep it fresh, and we sugar off on the weekend.  In the height of the season, we may sugar off 10-15 gallons on the weekend!  Of course, 10 gallons of sap generally only makes a quart of syrup, but there's something incredibly satisfying about drilling a hole in a tree, boiling down what comes out, and then eating it on your waffles.