Every Friday or Saturday night during the month of March, Luc Picknell and a handful of fellow maple syrup lovers get together in his Navan backyard to boil some sap, share a few stories and watch a little TV in his aptly named Navan Tappin’ Shack.

Luc Picknell (centre) with some friends in his backyard ‘Navan Tappin’ Shack’. FRED SHERWIN PHOTO

“It’s better than sitting in the basement. What else are you going to do in March,” Picknell asks rhetorically.

Picknell and friends Mathieu Boulianne, Brian Moore, Kyle Edwards, Tim Bernardi and Atti Kisch, and draw sap from maple trees on their own properties as well as some of their neighbours’ trees.

Last year, they collected over 3,000 litres of sap which they turned into 76 litres of maple syrup using a wood-fired evaporator. (Editor’s note: The ratio of sap to syrup is 40:1.)

“It was the most we’ve ever made. The weather was prefect. Warm days, cold nights. You couldn’t ask for better,” says Picknell.

Hoping to build on the success they had last year, the group tapped an additional 20 trees this year. After a fantastic start to the season during the first two weeks of the month, the daytime temperatures took a dip to at or below freezing for much of last week, slowing the flow of sap to a trickle.

Despite the setback, Picknell and the others were hoping to end the season with a bang as temperatures warm up this week.No matter how much sap they collect, or syrup they end up with, the process is all about camaraderie, friendship and com-munity spirit.

Whenever they get together to boil the sap, it’s very much a family affair with everyone’s spouses and kids all taking part.

One of the newest additions to the group are the Wilsons, Danny and Brigitte. The couple was approached by Luc last year who asked them if he could tap their trees. He ended up taping all 12 trees on their property. As a result they ended with six 16-ounce jars of pure maple syrup. They’re not sure how much they will end with this year – it all goes toward the total amount of syrup produced which will be shared between everyone who takes part in the process – but whatever it is they will enjoy every drop of the liquid gold.

“We love maple syrup, especially the kids” Danny says, referring to the couple’s three children. “Our kids just drown their pancakes in syrup. We’ll go through a jar in three seatings.”

Having experienced the entire process from tapping to boiling and reducing the sap from 40 to 1, Danny and Brigitte have a newfound appreciation for what goes into producin maple syrup from sap. It also makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to ever use store-bought syrup again.

“Now that we’re apart of this, we’ll never go back to anything else,” says Brigitte.