SF has a great activities association, though we rarely make it to activities. A few weeks ago, Jeremy asked us if we'd be interested in a special trip to Funk's Grove and Sugar Grove Nature Center to learn about how maple sirup is made. We all decided it might be kinda cool, even if cold outside.
So, this morning, we all bundled up with multiple layers. It was a balmy 22 degrees as we headed out.
Jeremy had to stop for breakfast on the way.
(It is about 6 miles from our church, so about 35 minutes from our house.)
As we drove down the long lane, a coyote ran across the road in front of us a ways! I had never seen one so clearly.
Annah and I picked up a scavenger hunt sheet. We found a few, but mostly enjoyed looking around.
A very cool Touch Table...
...and an awesome mural behind it...
We tried to guess which of the pelts would be softest on each side of the fence. Jeremy was a little worried after touching the skunk.
Some kind of foot! Caeden thought it was from a t-rex.
Loved this sign...
Walking through the bird sanctuary...
...and out to the Sap and Honey House...
Here, we learned so much about how maple sirup is made, and saw the evaporator at work.
We got to smell the freshly boiling maple sirup--heavenly!
Here at Sugar Grove, it takes 40 gallons of sugar maple sap to make 1 gallon of sirup. In order to be sold commercially as "real maple" sirup, the sap must be boiled down to 65% maple content.
We learned that in order to harvest sap from the trees, it must be a little bit above freezing for at least a few days in a row. There is a small window of time to collect the sap--usually just 2-3 weeks, but sometimes just a few days! Normally, Sugar Grove is able to do this in February, but this year it has been too cold--only a couple days above freezing at all. They're hoping over the next couple weeks it will be the proper temperature to collect sap and make sirup.
Pouring sap into the evaporater...
At our next station, we learned even more. Here a volunteer is demonstrating how early settlers carried wooden buckets full of sap or sirup with a yoke.
Looking at various types of spouts...
Sirup (which is the correct spelling for pure maple sirup with no additives) has a variety of grades and colors depending on its density and what time of the year it is made. The higher the concentration of maple, the darker.
We did get to taste a bit of the Sugar Grove maple sirup. It was amazing!!
Heading to our next station...
Funk's Grove is beautiful in winter! We can't wait to go back in other seasons.
At our next station, we learned about how Native American Indians made maple sirup.
It is not known exactly how the Native Americans discovered the sweet sap could be made into sirup, but there are some fun legends. One that was shared with us was about an Indian man who threw his tomahawk at a rabbit, missed and hit a tree, sat his bucket down under the place where he took his tomahawk out and forgot it. When his wife came along on her way to get water from the creek, she saw the bucket full of what she thought was water, and cooked up a rabbit in it and discovered it was "sweet water" that had come from the tree.
This lady demonstrated how the Native American Indians taught the early American pioneers and settlers how to make sirup. They would hollow out a big log, fill it with sweet maple sap, heat rocks in a fire, and put the burning rocks into the sap to make it boil and turn to sirup. And I thought today's process seemed labor-intensive!
Next we were taught how to tap a tree. These huge trunks were the demonstration station. Caeden got to help measure. We learned how big around a sugar maple tree must be in order to be tapped, and that every 25 inches bigger around another tap can be added--up to 4 taps on one tree.
P.K. showed us how that the drills were all marked, showing how far in to the tree to drill.
At the next station, we learned all about sugar maple trees and how they grow, and how the sap is made inside the tree.
Then we all got in our cars and headed out to the sugar bush. When we parked along the lane, we got out and were divided up into small groups. Since there are 5 of us, we got to tap our own tree.
A lady named Ellen helped us. Once we picked out our tree, the girls measured it.
Then we looked for scars from previous taps and made sure to stay 6 inches away when we chose where to put ours.
Ellen helped Caeden start to drill into the tree in our chosen spot.
Annah was next.
Then Sylvia.
I had a turn in there too. And Jeremy brought it home.
Then we took turns backing the drill out, and cleaned the sawdust out of the hole we'd made.
There were 3 spiles (That's the little spout.) in our tapping bucket. We chose one and used a hammer to tap it into the hole we'd drilled. Then we hung the bucket on the spile.
Jeremy put the lid on. (That's to keep the bugs and forest dirt and bird doo out.)
Annah put a clothespin on the left side of the lid to indicate to Sugar Grove volunteers that we had just tapped this tree today.
There were about 55 people total in our groups today. It was kinda neat to see all the groups tapping trees around the forest.
We all learned a lot, thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience, and agreed that it was a great Saturday morning family activity!
