Tapping Into Sweetness 

Peterson in his "A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America," tells us all maples can be tapped to produce syrup. However the sugar maple is the tree with the highest sugar content in its sap.

To tap a maple, first find 'belly buttons' of previous taps. Because of the way it heals, you can not tap this location again for another 10 years. You also need to tap 6 inches above or below or 3 inches to either side a button. Drill about 1.5 inches in with a slight up angle to get gravity to aid in flow of sap.

Gently tap your spout into the hole.  The goal is to have the spout in firmly enough to hold a bucket, yet not hit it so hard as to crack the bark, which would cause weeping around the spout.

Now, if you are ambitious enough, is a good time to put two bands of duct tape around the trunk, one facing in and one out, to keep the ants from getting to the sap [and falling in the bucket].  As the temperature gets above 40 and listen for the sweet sound of drip . . . drip . . . drip . . .