"As the cold days of winter begin to wane, a long tradition in northern New England is to begin to tap the local sugar maple trees that grow there and to collect their sap.  Years ago this was done with individual buckets attached to the trunks of those trees.  In more recent years, however, most sap now is collected by using gravity to allow the sap to flow downhill from the individual tree taps to modern tanks via plastic tubing strung between the trees throughout the "sugar bush".  Next, the natural sap is heated to a boil in a specialized structure called a "sugarhouse" (or "sugar shack").  As the sap boils away, clouds of "sticky" steam fill the air as the sap becomes concentrated into the tasty syrup used on pancakes and in other cooking..