Most people sit down to breakfast with a bottle of store bought maple syrup but not Paul Eakin and his son David.

Eakin, 84, of Glenn Road in Findley Township, makes his own maple syrup. He has lived and worked for 53 years on the farm his deceased wife grew up on. Originally from Venango County, Eakin was raised in a family that made maple syrup at home.

Eakin's son David, 51, of Grove City, is also an integral part of the maple sugaring process. David Eakin said he can remember his family producing syrup from the time he was very small. Though over the years the process has changed dramatically.

The operation is no longer just a few trees with buckets catching the sap, David Eakin said.

The Eakins have a high tech operation that has already yielded well over 300 gallons of syrup this season. They hope to get one more run in before the season -- which started in January -- ends.

Underground pipe lines carry the sap from the trees to holding tanks along roads near Eakin's home where his sugaring house is also located.

Maple trees can hold anywhere between one to four taps each depending on the size, according to Paul Eakin. He has about 4,500 running taps this year, he said.

Once the sap is inside the sugaring house it goes through a series of filters, presses, ultraviolet lights, evaporators and handmade, aluminum holding tanks. The process strains undesirable material, such as bugs, from the syrup. It also purifies and boils the sap down to pure syrup.

It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, Paul Eakin said.

The quantity and quality of syrup depends on cold nights and warm days to help the trees produce the best sap possible, Paul Eakin said. The unseasonably warm winter has affected syrup production.

According to Jim Finley, associate professor of forest resources at Penn State University, the warm winter weather caused the maple syrup season -- which usually begins in mid-February -- to start in January before many producers were ready to collect the sap. The warm weather and early season is likely to result in lower amounts of maple sap produced by trees in Pennsylvania, he said.

A dry winter is also expected to affect maple syrup product, Finley said. He said if the drought continues through the summer it could limit syrup production next year.

Paul Eakin said he was ready to start collecting sap in January.

"We've very lucky we got started early," Paul Eakin said. He said he talked to many other maple syrup producers who didn't have very good luck with their product, but this year he and his son produced about 100 gallons more than usual.

One challenge Paul Eakin said he did face this year was "sugar sand." Sugar sand is a grit that develops in the sap, and it is caused when the ground doesn't freeze, he said.

As the third generation of Eakin men to be involved in making maple syrup, David Eakin said he plans to continue the process as long as he can.

"I hope I live as long as my dad," he said. "I take a lot of pride in this, a lot of pride."

David Eakin said after his mother's death nine years ago, making maple syrup was the one thing that has kept his father going. "He lives for two months out of the year. That's what his life is," he said of his father.

The Eakin's have been successful in their business venture simply through word of mouth, David Eakin said. He said they ship syrup to Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and California. The Eakins have also teamed up with Jennings Nature Reserve, Slippery Rock, to educate people about the sugaring process.

Over the years competition has increased in the maple syrup market which has made the Eakins "more fussy" about their product, David Eakin said. "You've gotta make a quality product," he said.

Paul Eakin said he would like to expand the business in the future by adding a candy kitchen to make maple candy year round.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Kristen Garrett at kgarrett@sharon-herald.com