Lastly, Here's A Handy Trick I Learned From My Pal Squanto

Okay, I didn't learn it from Squanto, exactly, but I did read that the Native Americans would freeze the sap over consecutive nights, discarding the ice and keeping the liquid, until a concentrated "syrup" of sorts was left.  Since the water component of sap freezes faster than the sugar-dense portion, I cheat and do the same.  I leave the sap in buckets overnight, and the ice I discard the next day has only the tiniest bit of sugar in it, which means I can use significantly less propane to boil down the sap, which, in turn, lowers the cost of the final syrup.  I only have discarded enough ice to consolidate about four buckets of regular sap into three buckets of more sugar-dense sap, but even that cuts costs quite a bit.

You, too, should bury fish under your corn hills and freeze your sap overnight.  Squanto knows what he's doing, folks.*

* For any scoffers, because there always are, I kept track of last year's cost per pint with and without the freezing of the sap first, noting a large difference, and am noting the same difference this year.  Also, sap with the ice discarded takes much less time to boil down than the same amount of sap straight from the tree, which, along with a noticeable color difference (sap - ice = darker color) has convinced me of my pal Squanto's helpful genius for sugar-bush-it-old-schoolers.