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.
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.
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.