Dad goes viral for revealing how to tap maple trees for homemade syrup

 By Jessica Hehir-Smith via SWNS

This delightful dad has risen to internet fame after showing the fascinating ancient process of tapping maple trees for homemade syrup in his own backyard.

John Driscoll, 35, decided to make a short video about his experience in the hopes a few dozen people would find it as cool as he does.

After posting the initial video of how to tap the trees, he put his phone down and carried on with his evening. The next morning his video had amassed millions of views and he had thousands of people wanting to find out more.

He has updated his followers on every step of the process, inspiring countless others around the world to learn about the historical process and try it out for themselves.

John, from Michigan, said: “I honestly wasn’t expecting anything from this experience other than a few pints of syrup.

“I have always wanted to make maple syrup. I grew up in Michigan and maple syrup is a VERY Michigan thing."

After borrowing some equipment from his brother-in-law, John began the process of tapping some of the maple trees around his house.

He described that there’s lots of waiting, both for the right weather conditions to create the sap flow and the five hours it takes to boil the sap down, but the final product is worth every minute.

John said: “The final product is just so delicious and there have been some other pleasant surprises along the way.

“I’ve been using sap instead of water to make coffee in the morning, which is just so special.

“I didn’t think we would get as much sap as we have so far - some days I walk out there and the buckets are overflowing by 5pm!

“It’s been really nice to have a new way to connect with the land and interact with nature in this way.”

The reaction online took John by surprise: his videos have almost FOUR MILLION likes and he now has over 110k TikTok users following his journey.

He said: “I heard my phone buzzing and just assumed it was a family group chat or something. I was with my family and it was nearly the evening, so I didn’t want to lose sleep over it.

“By the morning I had millions of views and thousands of comments!

“People have really taken a liking to this process and have been so genuinely interested in connecting and learning more about it.”

With his internet notoriety came a range of comments and opinions from total strangers, which he has yet to get used to.

John added: “Someone said I was so calm and nice that I must be a serial killer…and others were agreeing with them!

“People have been comparing me to Bob Ross and Mr. Rogers, which is just amazing.

“They are both gentle, kind people who have such heartwarming, educational shows so it’s great to think people see that in me.

“I think it’s important for the world to see more gentle, patient, and caring men in the media.”

John will continue to post about his projects and enjoy the internet fame, however long it lasts. He is thrilled to be able to share and educate people on the amazing things you can do in nature.

He said: “You can do it with lots of different kinds, not just maples. People collect sap and make syrup from birch, walnut, and many others.

“I’m definitely not an expert at this but it’s so easy to collect sap from trees - if you have a drill and a bucket, you can do it too!”