Where does maple syrup come from?

This is a snow-covered sap bucket hanging off of a maple tree. One of our Dublin students, Scott, is in charge of collecting this sap to process into maple syrup. After collecting the sap, he takes it to a "sugar house" where they remove the water through a heating process. It takes 40 liters to produce a single liter of syrup.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining this correctly, but suffice to say that this is where you get the real syrup and not that watery nonsense they put in the Village Inn containers.

(If you find this fascinating then go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup to learn more!)

Accept no substitute for NH maple syrup! (Unless it is Vermont because they are kind of nice. Canadians aren't half-bad either. Heck, just use any real maple syrup you can find.)