Sugar sugar

all photos, Diane Carnevale

Have you seen those buckets on sugar maple trees around town? The nights are still cold but the days are warming up, which means the sap is rising and it's time to make sweet maple syrup! These photos were taken around Hamilton and Wenham last week at homes that are lucky enough to have large sugar maples.  To tap a tree for sap a tree needs to be at least a foot wide (you can place more taps if your trees are wider), and you'll get between 10 and 20 gallons of sap per tap. It'll take about 11 gallons of tree sap to boil down to make a quart of maple syrup. The Essex County Coop in Topsfield sells taps and buckets and you can learn how to tap your sugar maple trees to make your own maple syrup here. Excellent quality maple syrup is expensive to buy, so tap your sugar maples trees if you have any in your yard!