Julia: Spring is even sweeter when you tap your maple tree

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03/10/10 - It’s March, and anything goes.  Being a March baby, I have experienced everything from snowstorms to sunny and 80 degrees on my birthday.  You just never know what you are going to get.  But if things keep going the way they have been these last couple of weeks, I fully anticipate being snow-free by the 23rd.  It’s always nice to have it feel like the new season when the calendar tells you you are entering one.

One of my great spring memories from the few years I spent growing up in the woods in Wisconsin is all of the Maple trees being tapped.  Our neighbors were very active in maple syruping, and as you drove up the rode to our house you could see countless Maple trees tapped with buckets hanging to catch the sap.  It amazed me to find out just how much sap was required to acquire a little bit of syrup.  We’re talking 30 – 40 gallons of sap from a sugar maple for just one gallon of pure maple syrup!   

One might think, is this really worth the effort?  Well, one taste and you won’t go back.  There is something about real warm maple syrup that makes even someone like me, who typically hates pancakes, ask for seconds.  The fact that people have been doing this for hundreds of years also tells me that there must be something to it.

Maple syrup was one of the first foods to be exported from the United States.  Fur traders and Europeans began trading the natives cloth, metal pots and other goods for their maple products.  This trading helped aid the process of turning the sap into syrup as they were able to switch from using clay pots and birch-bark containers with red-hot rocks from a fire to heat the sap to metal pots over a fire to more efficiently boil it down.

If you have even just one maple tree in your yard, you can try making your own maple syrup.  Our current weather pattern is ripe for tapping your tree and collecting the sap.  The typical sap collection runs from the middle of March to the middle of April, although it has been known to begin as early as January and as late as May.  Like I said, you just never know what you are going to get when it comes to March weather.

While you can go at it by yourself (a partner is recommended), our state parks system is hosting several maple syruping events over the next several weeks.  Participants will learn how to tap trees, collect and boil down sap, and best of all, taste samples!  The programs are free, but you will need a state park vehicle sticker to enter the park.  To learn more about the history of Maple Syrup and how to do it yourself, click here.  To learn about the various events and demonstrations being held click here.

Julia VanAvery is the Development Officer for Conservation Minnesota.

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