Start Stockpiling Maple Syrup

[Denninmi]

46. Um, I did 22 quarts from one tree.

Albeit an enormous one. Silver maple. I put 3 or 4 taps into it most years. I use 1 1/2" dowels, hollowed out in the center with a quarter inch bit for the sap to flow out, and drilled out with a 1 1/4" bit about an inch deep on the tree-ward end to give more surface area for sap collection.

Collecting is easy, its the boiling that is an enormous amount of time and some work. More time than work, mostly just tending the fire, adding wood. The final boil-down indoors is more nerve wracking, because the stuff boils over easily and can also burn quickly.

My sap generally has a sugar content of somewhere near 3 %. This is middle-range, and it varies by year somewhat.
Sugar content influences how much final yield you get. Trees grown in open lawn situations with ideal conditions (fed, watered during drought, etc.) can outyield trees grown in natural conditions without such support.