Tapping Trees

We are tapping our native Manitoba Maples this year - friends of ours have been doing this for the last few years, and so we're giving it a try.  Hopefully the weather works in our favor this spring!  We are doing it the cheap way - drill a hole into the tree, jam in a tube that leads into a 5 gallon pail.  And I'm covering the pails in used plastic shopping bags - better than going to the landfills!  We'll try to write an update in a couple of weeks to tell you how it went - one tree that's in a sunny spot has been producing a bit, even though it is still below freezing.

(update: We love MB maple syrup - the sweetness isn't as extreme as sugar maples, but the boiling process takes a LONG time!)