The neighbor call me the other day to ask if we'd be interested in tapping the maple trees on our property for the sap to make maple syrup.

She keeps bees and had started tapping the maple trees on her property.
We've been getting honey from her for a couple years now.

I said sure, why not.

The wife and I met her down in the woods on our property where she showed us a couple maple trees that we could tap.

She showed us how and where to drill and then install the taps.

She said I shouldn't have to check them everyday, usually every couple days would be good.

I went down and checked the one closest to my garage and it had about 3/4 of an inch of sap in it's jugs.

I figured I'll just check the other tree tomorrow since it's farther away (next to her driveway, probably 1/8th mile over).

She texts me and says the jugs on that tree are already full of sap.

I drove over on the golf cart and poured the sap into a couple other jugs and ended up with about a gallon and a half of sap.

The guy that showed her how to identify the trees is supposed to come back out and show us where other maple trees are on our property to tap.

She says it takes 40 gallons of sap to a gallon of maple syrup.

I'll collect a bunch of sap and then start boiling it down.

Never have but use to go to maple syrup festivals as a kid, they had the wagon rides like the pumpkin patch deals in the fall but would always be serving pancakes, breakfast sausage and scrambled eggs. To this day I still require REAL maple syrup on my breakfast sausage (back then, it was just run off from the pancakes). Try it when you make yours.

Just found this video. Says 40:1 sap to syrup ratio on a sugar maple, it goes up from there

My dad did it for years....many years ago. Once you've had REAL maple syrup you won't touch any of the fake crap they sell in the stores. Yum!!!!

Speaking of maple syrup. Does anyone know a source for the real deal stuff that can be bought online say for a store out of Michigan for example? Not many maple trees around these parts.

Amazon.com is your friend. Lots of options show if you search WI Maple Syrup.

There are quite a few small operators/companies around my area here in upstate NY. A friend of mine owns and operates one of them - Wild Hill Maple. That's where I get mine. Pretty sure he sells online along with a pretty extensive local base.

Thank to the two prior posters in this thread. Amazon is good but, I'd rather buy from a local or smaller distributor. I'm closest to WI and MI (closer to this state) but, I already have one place so, that's near Mackinac so, I guess I'll stick with that.

My son has a farm in northern Michigan by Torch lake. He has 5 acres of hardwoods and taps them. Last year he produced 50+ gallons of maple syrup.