I’m sure we aren’t unusual in our experience of reading the Little House books and wanting to try all of the fun things that the Ingalls family did!  When we read “Little House on the Prairie” a couple years ago, Bella was determined to try her hand at making maple syrup.

In the fall we walked around our woods and marked a few maple trees.  Sugar maples are easy to identify, with their firey fall foliage!  As the weather warmed that spring, we tapped five trees.  Trees should be tapped during that brief spring weather when the days are warm, but the nights stillfreeze.  It really is amazing to watch that sap drip out of the trees!  Once the tree begins to develop buds, it’s time to pull your spiles out and let the tree continue to bloom.

Our attempt at sugaring last year went well and yielded some lovely pints of sweet maple syrup.  We did have some mishaps, such as forgetting about the boiling pot and letting an entire batch burn!  Or failing to collect the sap promptly, and losing it to bug infestations.  Yuk!

This fall, we marked ten trees and have ordered a second batch of spiles.  We are hoping for a nice yield.