Hey guys.....I'm looking too make some syrup this year.....I've made lots of sorghum syrup over the years but never tried maple. Last year, we made an attempt at collecting sap using clear tubing for spiles and plastic bags...worked great but we started too late in the season as the buds were popping already so we didnt follow thru.
We're pretty tight on finances here so buying equipment is out of the question....we're gonna use the tubing into plastic milk jugs for collecting...we can tie the milk jugs too the trees loosely and run the tubing into the cap thru a drilled hole. In collecting, just unscrew the cap and dump it into 25 gallon plastic containers we already have.
Now comes the part I need some help with.....how do we cook it down as we dont have a fancy evaporater and I dont want too fire up the sorghum house as it would take wayyyyy more sap too feed it than we could collect in an efficient manner.
We're just looking too jug up maybe 5 gallons for our personal use this year......

1. When do we start tapping.
2. How do we store the sap until we get enough too cook down.....I'm assuming that leaving it in the plastic drums in the cold will keep it but will it freeze?.
3. What is the best way too cook down the sap into syrup? I have a big (15 gallon) cast iron kettle. I also have 3 copper apple butter kettles. We have several stainless steel stock pots (3 - 4 gallons each). Thats what I have too work with......are we going too be able to use any of this or do I need too look for something else?

I hope next year too enhance the operation if it works this year and maybe invest in a good used evaporater......but money wont allow it this year.

Any idears???? Thanks in advance for help.