A maple in April is a force to be reckoned with. The sap is flowing with a vengeance, squeezed by specialized cells that expand during the heat of day to create more pressure in a maple tree than in the inside of a car tire.
The people who make maple syrup, a hearty tribe called sugarmakers, capitalize on this pressure by drilling holes in the tree, a process known as tapping. Taps allow the tree’s pressure to push the sap, which the sugarmakers refer to as “water,” out of the tree and directly into a collection system.
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