Among the folklore of maple-sugaring is an old Indian legend that at one time the sap of the maple tree was almost pure syrup and that when tasted by one of the gods he found it to be too good and too easily obtained. It would be, he thought, too little prized. Accordingly, he diluted the sap of the maple until its sweetness was barely discernible. The settlers of colonial America learned from the Indians the value and the toil of maple sugar.
Maple sap is thin, barely sweet, and as colorless as water.
Forty gallons of sap are required to produce one gallon of syrup or eight pounds of sugar. Hundreds of trees are tapped and many more cut for firewood. In the Spring, when the days and the nights and the sun and the frost are about equal, the sap begins to run. The sap is diverted through spiles whittled of Sumac. An iron rod was inserted through the soft center to provide a cauterized channel through which the sap would flow into a hand made trough.