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I received a fascinating little book in the mail a few weeks ago, and if you have any interest in learning how to tap your farm's maple trees for syrup production, you should put it on your wish list.
Maple on Tap: Making Your Own Maple Syrup (Acres U.S.A., 2012), by Rich Finzer, was a nice surprise. When I took the book out of the package it arrived in, I opened it immediately. It is not a flashy book filled with glossy photographs and superfluous information, but rather it’s a humble workhorse, chock full of practical information. Yes, there is a little bit of syrup history, but then the book goes right into the how-to's of syrup production. It covers everything from which maple species are best for tapping to the BTUs of the different fire woods you can burn to cook down the sap.
Everything is here. Maple on Tap covers how to gauge the best timing for a good sap run, what type of equipment you'll need, how to boil down and store the goods, and it even goes over the cost of producing your own syrup. The photographs found throughout the book are also very practical, showing you the techniques and equipment as they are described within the text.
While I do enjoy a flashy book every now and then, there is nothing like a sweet little practical book that contains exactly what I need to know to get the job done.
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