Collecting and cooking maple sap into syrup is a longstanding winter tradition in many eastern states, but how many realize it is also a practice in Missouri's Ozarks, and probably other states?
This year I cooked my usual small amount from 4-8 trees and was rewarded with the usual, delicious genuine 100% organic maple syrup. They say it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup, but I find it is more like 60-80 gallons of sap to each gallon of syrup, as I prefer a slightly thicker (and hence sweeter) end product.
Check out the pictures, two showing the preparation of building the burn pit to optimize fast cooking, which means making certain the fire is as close as possible to the sap pot, and the fire is as protected as possible from wind so as to retain as much heat as possible for upward flow toward cooking vessel. I have seen people cooking down sap over a huge bonfire surrounded by a ring of small rocks, with the cooking pot suspended over the fire, and several feet of air space between the flames and the pot. These people would periodically throw large logs onto the fire and I'm certain they burned a cord or more of wood. In my setup I doubt if I burn 1/4 of a cord, as I keep a stash of small sticks near the logs, and regularly add the small sticks, which keeps the fire very hot and it is the addition of these small sticks that periodically causes the sap to boil up and over the sides of the pot.
Because the sap can and does occasionally boil over, the key is to begin cooking with a level that is not close to the top of the pot. BEWARE: when cooking maple sap, a watched pot DOES BOIL (over).
Even if readers are not interested in this old tradition but like the taste of end product, maple syrup can be found in many local farmer's markets.
Enjoy.