If you see Steam during the spring maple season, please stop in and say, Hello. My name is Brad Rice, I am a chef by trade and I have a love for the outdoors. With that combination, making maple syrup is perfect for me. I also get a chance to get out of the house in late winter when cabin fever is at its worst. The spring of 2009 was my first season of making pure New Hampshire maple syrup. I had 25 taps and made several gallons of wonderful amber gold. The sap was boiled on my backyard rig with a roasting pan on cement blocks. It was then I realized I had been bitten by the maple bug and fell in love with the process.