IT'S SUGAR TIME

Wisconsin is chock full of Sugar Bushes.....Sugar Maple Trees (Acer saccharum).  Every year, the early Spring is time for making Maple Syrup.  Typically, the sugar camps open in mid March and continue through mid April.
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It takes special weather to get the maple trees to start pushing sugar rich sap from their roots to the tree top buds......warm above freezing days with cool below freezing nights.  This year, those conditions are about a month early.  So local syrup makers have already begun to tap their trees and gather up a few gallons of that precious gold.
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Maple sap is typically 98% water and 2% sugar......Sucrose, specifically.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.  The syrup is made by boiling away the water.  The best 'syrp is made over a wood fired boiler.  Dissolved materials in the sap and smoke from the wood fire, give maple syrup that mapley taste.
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In the old days, wooden buckets were used to collect the sap.  Commercial collectors now use gravity fed hoses to collect the sap into large stainless steel collecting vats.  Small operators like this family in the City of Plymouth, in Sheboygan County, WI use plastic bags to collect the sap. Most of the bags are hung on the south side of the tree as that side warms faster and produces greater amounts of sap.
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The bags are then hand-emptied into the boiler and the water is reduced.  In the old days, "master" syrup makers relied on color, and taste to determine when it was done.  These days they use a hydrometer, similar to one used to determine life in a lead/acid battery, for determining the specific gravity of the boiled sap.  This leads to more consistent flavor in the syrup.
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Once boiled to the proper consistency the syrup is poured into containers for family use or for sale.  My father and I spent MANY hours making maple syrup and even more hours cutting, splitting and stacking the wood necessary to complete the boil.
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Maple syrup sells for many dollars mostly dependent on where it is produced.  In New England (Vermont, New Hampshire, New York), the maple juice sells for over $50 / gallon....and well worth it.
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BEST IN LARGE.