It's Maple Syrup Time Again

It's a beautiful, sunny late winter day, 39 degrees.  We're boiling maple sap today, having gathered six gallons in the last few days from our four maple trees.  Six GALLONS of sap will amount to about 2-1/2 CUPS of finished syrup.  The ratio of sap to syrup is 40 to 1.  Our setup in the garage consists of an apartment sized gas stove with four burners.  I use a set of four old Revereware pots for boiling the sap and it boils at a rate of about one gallon per hour, costing only about 30 cents per hour.  So it will take about 6 hours to boil the 6 gallons and only cost $1.80 in gas. 

In order for the sap to run, we need below 32 degree temps at night and above freezing during the day.  Ideal temperatures are in the 20s at night and 40s during the day.  As mentioned, we have four maple trees on our property that are large enough to tap -- two sugar maples (Acer sacharum) that are about 50 years old and two red maples (Acer rubrum) that are about 35 years old.  We have two taps in each of the sugar maples and one in each of the red maples.  Our best year was 2012 when we ended up with 1-1/2 gallons of syrup!