The Actual Process of Making Your Own Maple Syrup
by Cathy Donnelly
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posted Mar 19 2011 7:15PM
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 It's a million hours of work for, like, a quart of maple syrup. I mean, I knew this going in, that it took forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. But I didn't realize I would spend four entire weekends doing nothing but boiling sap, from sun up to well past sundown, all day Saturday, all day Sunday.
The thing you see the pots of sap boiling on is something everyone in Wyoming County has, a burn barrel..except most of 'em are made of cinderblocks. Perfect for  keeping the sap boiling all day. However you have to have a pile of wood the size of the Wyoming Valley mall to keep the fire hot enough to boil the sap. Every FIVE MINUTES you have to throw in more wood. I collected and broke up every scrap of wood on my property. A lot were still wet so I had to dry 'em out on top, as you can see behind the pots. I had 2 friends give me literally TRUCKLOADS of scrap wood from construction. Even one of the engineers here in the  Mountain Cabin gave me an entire truck bed full of broken up pallets. It was the most exhausting thing ever. I can't wait to get back to the gym and rest!!
However, it is very very delicious. I'm going to freeze my 11 or 12 half-pints, and give 'em out at Christmastime. But will I do this again? Maybe, maybe not. I mean, I really like the idea of being able to glean something from stuff already growing on my property, but dear sweet Lord A-mighty, it's labor intensive!
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