In the spring people put spiles into the trees and the sap runs out and is collected in a bucket attached to the tree. When they get about 40 buckets of sap it is then cooked down and they keep stirring, and eventually the water is cooked out and you get approximately 1 gallon of true maple syrup out of it. It is a long painstaking process, but the results are phenomenally tasty. Often it is eaten on pancakes or waffles, other times put into hot teas or poured over ice cream. A real treat!