Making maple syrup

Debbie and Jim Morrison make maple syrup collected on their 172 acres in Minnesota.

Debbie Morrison has collected sap in buckets, poured it into a custom-made 120-gallon tank, and now tows it back to the sugar house.

Jim removes one of the 500 taps in their trees. Each tap has a plastic tube that is inserted into the cover of a bucket. This means the Morrisons have 500 tubes, taps, buckets, and lids to clean each year.

This shows the scale of the Morrison's operation, with many of the matured trees being tapped. They made 68 gallons of syrup the past two seasons.

The sap is running! Jim inspects fresh maple sap dripping from a tube attached to a tap. Freezing nights and warm days create the perfect condition for sap to run.

Debbie and Jim collect sap in 5-gallon buckets. When the sap is running, there are days when each bucket can have anywhere from 3 to 5 gallons of maple sap.

Back at the shop, the Morrisons prepare to process their harvest.

Grandma's cracklin' kitchen woodstove never smelled better than this. Pops and bubbles. Gurgles and glugs. Sweet smoky air dances from beneath the covers of the wood-fired boiler. Maple sap is turned to maple syrup.

The end of the maple syrup season ushers in the beginning of honeybee season. It's at this time Debbie opens up the honeybee hives for the first time since they were closed up for the winter in late October. She has nine hives.

Bees swarm about as the hive is opened.<br>Learn more:<br>
Jim and Debbie Morrison<br>
Mora, Minnesota<br>
320/679-9195<br>
sapsuckerfarms@northlc.com<br>
www.sapsuckerfarms.com
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