Our Maple Syrup season is finally in full swing! After a rainy weekend and temperatures creating the perfect conditions for the sap to flow, we collected over 60 gallons of sap at the beginning of this week. Our very first sap boil of 2025 is just around the corner, and soon, we will have syrup to share with you all. Before then, we have another way that you are invited to participate in our Maple Syruping process.
Many people can agree that drizzling pure maple syrup over a tower of warm pancakes is one of the best ways to start any morning. Although syrup is a commodity that we may take for granted, after learning all about how syrup is made, it is much easier to fully appreciate nature’s incredible gift. Our staff and volunteers who have helped make this syruping season possible, know exactly what it takes to put a finished bottle on the table. Here’s an overview:
- Back in August of 2024, when the trees still had their leaves, one staff and two volunteers walked our syruping trail to identify new Sugar Maple Trees to tap this season.
- In January of 2025, four volunteers and Ney staff climbed our gravity lines to replace chewed on and old lines.
- Across two different afternoons in February, two volunteers helped Ney staff officially start our syruping season by tapping the Maple trees in our gravity line system.
- Shortly after tapping, staff and one volunteer pressure washed our collection tanks and bulk storage tanks.
- For the next week, staff tapped trees along the syruping trail in the park, collecting any running sap as they went along.
- After all the trees were tapped, staff and a few volunteers collected, measured, and stored sap. We have also had a couple opportunities to complete these steps with young learners visiting the park.
- Another volunteer has helped staff prepare our cooking arch for another season of boiling sap.
- Now, in the coming weeks, staff and additional volunteers will boil the sap, finish it in a smaller pan, filter it one last time, and finally, bottle it.
Of course, Maple Syruping takes quite a great deal of effort. As always, we are very thankful for the hours and excitement our volunteers put into projects like this. Each step along the way brings us closer to nature, inspiring a deeper respect for what it provides.
While we certainly have a lot on our hands from all of the steps listed above, our staff has been thinking of ways to start our syruping process from the very beginning. After removing dead Ash trees from the pond loop at the beginning of this year, we identified that area as a great place to establish brand new Sugar Maple trees. Now, we are happy to invite you to help us make this very first step of the syruping process possible!
At this year’s Tree Jamboree event held on Saturday, April 26th from 12:30 to 3:30pm, our staff will work together with the community to plant six new Sugar Maple Trees.
Since planting these trees, watching them grow, and enjoying their syrup is a process that we will all share across many generations, our staff is excited to invite you to further support the process by gifting a donation to cover the cost of these trees. Every donation, from $1 to $100, the full cost of one tree, adds to our ability to share syrup for generations to come. By gifting a donation of any amount and helping us plant the Maples at the Tree Jamboree, you can proudly say that you’ve played an active role in supporting the longevity of our syruping efforts.
It is heartwarming to know that these trees will hold a special meaning to us and the members of our community. Thank you for your support and love of maple syrup!