Maple syrup is different than the "breakfast syrup" that many people pour over their pancakes! Maple syrup is actually made from the sap of maple trees. In late winter or early spring, you would take a sap bucket such as this one out to the woods. You'd hang the bucket below a hole that had been tapped into the sugar maple tree. The bucket would collect the sap, which then would be heated and reduced into syrup. You would need 10 gallons of sap to produce one quart of syrup!