How Matt's Maple Syrup is made (click pictures for large image):

At the start of the sugaring season, the maple trees are tapped. Small

holes are drilled in the trees, and plastic spouts are inserted in the holes to

collect the sap. As long as the trees are tapped carefully, no permanent

damage is done to the tree.

In the old days, tapping was done with a brace and bit, which is a primitive

hand-powered drill. Then, when engines became light enough, gas

powered tappers were used. Today, we use portable electric drills, which

are both lighter, quieter and more reliable than the gas tappers.

During a run the sap flows from the trees, through the spouts and into a

network of tubing which is strung between the trees. The sap then flows

through the tubing and into holding tanks in the sugar house.

Before inexpensive tubing was invented, the sap was collected in buckets

which were hung from the spouts (Spouts used to be made of metal, to

support the weight of a full bucket). Each of these buckets needed to be

emptied into a gathering tank which was pulled through the sugarbush by a

work horse.

After the sap is collected in the sugarhouse, it is boiled down in our wood

fired evaporator until it becomes maple syrup. It takes about 40 gallons of

sap to make a single gallon of syrup. When our evaporator is boiling well it

can boil off about 300 gallons of sap per hour, which means that we can

make about 7.5 gallons of syrup every hour.

After the syrup is drawn off the evaporator, it is pumped through a filtering

system to remove impurities, and then canned for sale.