Sugarbush! A stand of maple trees, which produces the most delicious sweet treat of all....natural indigenous sap. In this first photo, the C.E.O. and I are heading to cut some more wood for the fire to stoke the boiler (I love my ears scratched...but not as much as having my picture taken).
The sap starts to run when the temperatures warm up in the early spring. It is gathered in buckets fed from sap lines from the trees. The fire in the box below heats up the clear sap and begins the long process of boiling off the excess water in the sap. 
Gentlemen, start your engines!
This boiling takes hours, and it's only necessary to check in occasionally to make sure there is enough wood in the stove bottom.
Maple Syrup, Maple Syrup,
On your pickles or on your turnips.
Not so good for polishing stirrups,
All the world loves maple syrup!
As the sap thickens, it becomes crucial you keep very close watch or the whole pan will burn (not a particularly happy sight, and much cursing and scrubbing is needed). As the liquid reaches the perfect consistency, it is drawn off and can be further reduced indoors and canned or bottled. As long as there is a good seal (glass canning jars preferred), the maple syrup will last indefinitely, however, there is a better chance of hell freezing over than having any millenial syrup.
This whole process of tapping trees, gathering wood, stoking the fire, preparring the syrup is not done only by the C.E.O. It is a total family commitment to producing something more than a sweet treat for a long tooth. The Sugarbush is on Grandpa's land and all of the siblings join to carry on what they experienced in their childhood, carry on tradition. It does take a fair amount of sap to produce one bottle of syrup....but with all the saps coming together a lot of work can get done.
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