By LISA RATHKE
Associated Press Writer
IRA, Vt. – Eric May wasn’t too keen on the taste of real maple syrup when he first moved to Vermont but he tapped some trees anyway, borrowing buckets from neighboring farmers. After boiling the sap for 18 hours in a pot over an outside fire, he produced his first quart. Then he was hooked.
“I thought it was the cat’s meow,” said May, 45. “Because it boiled. You take this liquid coming out of a tree that you think is just water but you can taste the sweetness in it, you just boil it down then all of a sudden after hours, you’ve got maple syrup.
Since that first year, his backyard sugaring operation has grown from 20 taps 13 years ago, to 50 the next, then 300 and 800 this year on the hillside behind his house. He’s added vacuum-packed lines that carry the sap from the trees to a holding tank and he’s built a wooden sugar shack where he and his teenage son spend long late winter nights boiling. He’s invested several thousand dollars, sells the syrup by word of mouth and hopes to make a little profit this year.