Maple Sugaring: Part II

After tapping the maple trees, the real work begins.  We are collecting sap this week with plans to cook down this weekend.

 We run the collected sap through a filter to collect any debris or insects that were attracted to the sweetness. 

Here's a look at the sap:

It looks like water and it mostly is at this stage though we've noticed the liquid is a bit sticky.

We started with these little food grade buckets because we had them left over from other projects, but we purchased two 5 gallon BPA-free water jugs to offer us our more storage capacity.  After we collect today we will have about 15 gallons to boil down!  More soon.