This story begins at the beginning of the new millennium. 1/1/2000 I moved to Wisconsin. Eventually I found some land just North of Cumberland, Wisconsin and put up a house. I found out later that my neighbor had a few nicknames "12 volt" and "pallet people". They were not hooked up to electricity and used a gas generator to charge batteries that provided electricity to their "house". The house was under construction. He would bring home broken pallets from work, tear them apart and he was using them to build their house which they lived in while they built it. I was reminded of them today. I had been in my home for almost a year when I took a walk trough the woods. There were orange bands around many of the trees on my property. I tore them off and removed them from the woods. I found out later that they had "marked" the maple trees to tap in the spring. These trees were 4 to 8 inches in diameter. They were all too small to be tapped.
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| Maple tree being tapped |
I now live in a small town in Minnesota. I noticed some strange activity in my neighbors yard. Well I guess that I mean strange for the middle of the city. He has had this pot cooking slowly in his yard for several days now. I see him out there frequently tending to his project. I've been very busy and haven't had a chance to talk with him personally. But I realized when I walked to the post office that he had his maple trees tapped.
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| Making Maple Syrup |
Dale told me this evening that he is tapping some trees someplace else too. I would think so! His 2-3 good size trees that he has tapped would not provide enough sap to boil down. The process is referred to as maple sugaring. 40 parts of sap will make 1 part syrup. In other words 10 gallons of sap will make one quart of maple syrup. I thought that it was funny that two of my neighbors had aspirations of making maple syrup. This guy looks like he is going to be successful! I am going to need to stop by there when he is out in the yard and my dogs are in the house.
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