We just finished tapping our trees on March 3rd and the sap started running. On the morning of March 5th our tanks were getting full so we started up the Reverse Osmosis machine to concentrate the sap and then we fired the evaporator and started cooking the concentrated sap. Often the first day we boil, we run out of sap before we can make syrup and we call it "sweetening the pans" but this year the sap kept coming and we made almost a full drum of syrup (40 gallons). The first run of sap made syrup with a classic, delicate maple flavor and amber color.