Maple Sugaring

On Saturday, the weather was a balmy 50 degrees, so we took Marissa and Brynn (Chaz and Jace were taking some classes at M.I.T.) and headed North to go learn how maple syrup is made. It was an awesome day!

We learned how to tell if a tree was a Sugar Maple. Marissa and Brynn got to help the leader with her demonstration.


We learned the different ways that are used to collect the maple sap. They can use tubing and gravity with a large collection bin or individual pails.



We also learned how you drill a hole in the sugar maple tree to be able to collect the sap. A tree needs to be at least 40 years old before you can drill your first hole!


We then hiked up to the "Sugar Shack" where they use a boiling process to make the sugar maple sap into maple syrup. Did you know that it takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup???


At the end of the tour, we got to go into the barn and they had lunch for sale. They had hot dogs that they boiled in the maple sap (97% water, 3% sugar), so it gave the hot dogs a slight maple taste - they were delicious!


Of course, we had to buy a bottle of real maple syrup before we left!