In walked bud

Yesterday, I went around to collect the sap, only to find all of the trees had buds coming out. Some of the sap tasted OK, some was flavorless, and some was just plain bad (buddy). I kept the sweet stuff and may boil it or not. Those trees had buds starting and the syrup could be considered grade B, or cooking syrup.

I boiled down about 30 gallons today, yielding 3 quarts and 6 oz. (just shy of a half-pint) of syrup. The sap was from several days ago, before the buds started coming out. It needed to be segregated from the other sap. The syrup was pretty dark, but tasted good. Dark amber.