Cold nights and (relatively) warm days can really get the sap flowing.

It’s syrup season in the tri-town and a handful of residents are tapping maple trees to get the sweet stuff, including Rochester’s Keeler family.

“We had great weather this past week so it was flowing really well,” she said. “If it gets warm and stays warm the season is over pretty quickly.”

Last weekend, Wendy Keeler tapped 11 trees on her property at Red Barn Farm.

Freezing nights and cool days are needed to harvest the sap.

Mild winters and warm springs the past couple of years weren’t ideal for making syrup. But this winter’s deep freeze and slow warm up has been gotten the sap flowing.

On Tuesday, she showed the Webelos Scouts in Rochester’s Pack 30 the complete syrup process, from tree to table.

It starts with four tools, a drill, hammer, spiel (the tap) and an old milk jug. For the demonstration, she chose a damaged tree destined for the log splitter.

“I try to have a little bit of mercy on the trees,” she said. “I don’t tap what I don’t have to.”

The directions are simple: Step one, drill a hole; step two, gently tap the spiel in with a hammer; step three, let the syrup flow.

“It’s overflowing!” said Howard, Keeler’s son, after checking on one of the tapped trees.

Straight from the source the sap looks more like water than something you’d pour on pancakes.

To make syrup the process is simple, but not easy. Forty gallons of sap yields one gallon of syrup. It’s boiled down over the course of 24 hours until it becomes thick and dark.

The boiling starts outside where Keeler has three shallow trays filled with sap bubbling on top of a small fire. Keeler says this initial boil is done outdoors. Otherwise, the condensation could do some damage.

“I’ve heard that some people’s wallpaper will peel off due to the moisture being released,” she said. After the initial boil the syrup is brought inside for a final reduction in the kitchen.

Inside, the Scouts take a sample and approve of the syrup, which has a delicate vanilla flavor.

With so much effort put into the syrup – given to friends as gifts and used for the family breakfast – it only makes sense to apply a strict syrup policy for breakfast.

“There’s no pouring,” Keeler said. “We heat up the syrup in the microwave and then dole it out. We don’t leave any maple syrup on the plate.”