Why maple syrup costs $9 a pint

First Maple Syrup Success, originally uploaded by edrahe.

At 11 p.m. yesterday, after collecting and boiling maple sap all day I didn't have the energy to get out my big camera and lighting equipment to record the results of my first boil of the 2008 season. So please excuse this sub-par snapshot.

I still have five gallons to boil down from yesterday's collection and will hopefully collect another 15 or more gallons of sap today. While a not a lot of syrup will result from this, it'll be more than enough for our personal use.

Maple syrup is expensive enough when you buy it in the store. Being a beginning syrup hobbyist its "only" costing me a couple of bottles of propane. But when you consider the cost of propane, the time I spend tapping trees, collecting, sap and boiling it down, I'm probably producing at the rate of $20 a pint.

But its fun, and it tastes really good on pancakes.