Maple Syrup in the Making...

A few recent events brought us to this point. It may have all started when I decided to do a 30-day no sugar challenge, dropping all processed sugar and using instead only honey and maple syrup. And for those of you who know me, you know I have a huge sweet tooth, so this is a big deal! A friend who came back from her family farm bearing a jar of homemade maple syrup could have given me a big push. And my husband showing up with 10 taps on loan from a co-worker through me right over the edge. We ARE making our own maple syrup!! Our first attempt at tapping the tree didn't go so well. We put two taps in and nothing. Waited another day, then two and still nothing. It was time to move on down the hill. For those of you in the know, we have 2 acres of land. Nearly 1 1/2 acres of it lay in what we like to call "the canyon." It's steep, and wet, oh and did I mention - steep? Yea. So down we hiked. We put all 10 taps in 3 trees and the maple water just started flowing. It was like magic! We left them alone for a few hours and came back later to find most of the buckets full!! I'm guessing we collected nearly 3 gallons of maple water in only 4 hours. All I know is that my gallon jug couldn't hold it all in one trip down so we had to take 3. Did I mention how steep the canyon is? We are going to see what turns up in the buckets tomorrow and then attempt to boil it all down and make us some syrup. So come back and check on our progress!

My big helper carrying the empty jug down the canyon.

The taps!

My first full jug of maple water!