How to make maple syrup...Jason Ircink-style.

My brother Jason delved into this process for the first time this year. It's a lot of work, but the pay-off is sweet. Seriously, the pride of tapping a maple tree and making your own syrup harkens back to a day where - unlike the current mindset of the Obama administration - people were rewarded for a hard day's work. If you've got a maple tree nearby, you too can sample nature's nectar. How to make maple syrup. Try it - the satisfaction you gain might surprise you.

The picture Jas took above illustrates the varying grades of syrup, based on the length of boiling time. That's a helluva nice picture, Jas - great composition. Good eye, brother! There's a few more pictures of Jas hard at work - click on READ MORE! and follow his pioneer spirit.

From mid-February to early April is prime time for maple syrup production. Maple producers "tap," or drill a small hole into the trunk of a tree and then insert a spout or spile to catch the sap that begins to collect in the hole. The spout is then connected to a bucket, or to plastic tubing stretching through the woods, to collect the dripping sap.

Jas - master of his domain! This is all taking place on private property somewhere in Wisconsin. Jas' close with the owner - he hunts the acreage. I won't tell you where 'cause we don't take kindly to interlopers. Yeeehawwww!

It takes 30-50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. The faster the sap is boiled, the higher the quality of the syrup. When the sap begins to thicken, take it indoors to finish boiling it on a stove where it is easier to control the heat. The syrup will have the right concentration of sugar when it is 7 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than when it first boiled. At or near sea level, the temperature will be about 219 degrees for finished syrup.

Molly and Zol, my brother's American water spaniels, did nothing to help Jason in his maple syrup-making endeavor. Good-for-nuthin little baaabies. Great dogs, these two.