In an effort to bring relevant cultural experiences to our au pairs, counselor Heike and I took our groups to a maple sugaring tour at the Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary in Belmont. We were welcomed by two experienced nature guides who ventured out into the snowy landscape with us to teach us about about maple sugaring.
a walk in the woods
We talked about and visited several maple trees, among them a red maple, a striped maple and of course, the sugar maple which is used to make maple syrup. We learned how to differentiate them by the way their leaves and buds look or how the branches come out of the trunk.
We ended up at a tapped sugar maple tree and observed the sap dripping into the bucket attached to the trunk. We learned that it takes a set of perfect weather conditions to come together to make the sap that is stored in the roots in winter to start flowing up the trunk. It is a combination of cold nights and warm days, conditions that can be found in the Northeastern US and Canada. When we tasted the sap, we all expected it to taste a lot sweeter than it was. It is the process of boiling down the sap that converts it into sweet syrup.
tapped maple tree
sugar shack
As part of the tour, we visited a fake sugar shack and the guides explained the process of how maple sap is boiled down to maple syrup. We learned that it takes 40 cups of sugar maple sap to make one cup of maple syrup! We got a chance to go into the kitchen and boil down some maple sap. We also tasted “fake” maple syrup and the real deal and had to guess which is which.
taste test
At the end of the tour, a nice surprise was waiting for us: vanilla ice cream with maple syrup, dried blueberries and cranberries.
Maple Sugaring Group
For more pictures of our maple sugaring tour go to maple sugaring photos
