Shadbush Nature Center Serves Up Sweet Science Lesson

Last weekend, hundreds of area residents gathered at the Burgess-Shabdush Nature Center to get a lesson on making maple syrup—the old-fashioned way.

It’s that time of the year—warm days and cool nights—to tap maple trees to make maple syrup. Shadbush naturalist Dan Farmer led a program on the science behind the sap.

Local scouting groups and families first gathered inside the nature center to learn the “ingredients” that trees use to create sap: water, sunlight, air and chlorophyll.  Scouts lined up poised as the various molecules that make up the chemical compound of sugar, C6, H12, O6. Then a scout from the audience volunteered to dress up as a maple tree to demonstrate how the parts of the tree work together to form sap.

After that demonstration, it was outside to learn how to identify maple trees (by looking at the twigs and buds on the branches). Maple trees have opposite as opposed to alternating buds on their branches. Participants observed a maple tree in the park that had been tapped with a sluice to drain the sap.

Then it was on to the “sugar shack,” or a close approximation of how an actual sugar shack works. Jo Burgess, nature center coordinator, presided over an outside fire where the sap was boiled down to produce maple syrup. The multi-step process involves first bringing the sap to 219 degrees Fahrenheit, then filtering out impurities and raising the temperature back up to 180 degrees at which time the syrup can be bottled and sealed.

The whole process can take all day, according to Burgess, who explained that a half-gallon of sap produces only an ounce and a half of maple syrup. After the demonstration, participants returned to the nature center to sample some maple syrup over ice cream. Scouts could also practice drilling holes in tree trunks, and using a sluice as well as experience what it was like to walk around with a yoke used to carry the sap from tree to shack.

Ken Majewski brought his son Jonathon, 8, who goes to , to the event because he used to tap maple trees as a child and wanted his son to learn how to do it. 

“I had a good time,” Jonathon said, adding that he enjoyed the campfire portion of the program the best. “I’m going to need practice to tell which trees are maples,” he said.

Jeffrey Reseigh, 8 from Dresden Elementary, also enjoyed the campfire. “I’d like to try it at home.”

For the adventurous soul who wants to try making maple syrup at home, some words of advice from Burgess. “Don’t try to do it in your kitchen. It will peel the paper off your walls,” she said.