Maple Tapping at St. John's

It's early spring . . . and the maple trees around here are giving out the good stuff.

The kids and I joined some other homeschooling friends for a fun field trip to St John's (Outdoor) University.

 Big white buckets for all that sap.

Here, Elin is using calipers to measure the tree trunk.

Can I just say the staff at St John's was amazing. They learned the kids' names, had them take turns using different maple tapping elements, and were just fun and energetic.

Then there is drilling. It wasn't really that noisy, but Elin covered her ears just in case.

 The hole in the tree must be examined.

Then the spile is put in. Let the sap dripping begin!
I didn't realize maple sap is pretty much like water - water that tastes the tiniest bit sweet.
Everyone had a taste.

After seeing how a tree is tapped, little people went off with buckets and friends to harvest sap.

 Over the spile, a metal cover with a handle is placed. This lets the sap drip into the plastic bag that hangs beneath - but keeps out rain and snow.

My sap collecting buddy was extremely enthusiastic and helpful.

When we emptied out one of our bags, we found some little critters in our sap. People aren't the only creatures who like maple syrup!

Elin carefully hangs a bag back on the spile after we empty it.

Friends in the woods.

There were also buckets, but our orders were to empty the bags.
The only downfall to the bags is that squirrels sometimes chew holes in them to get to the sap.

That's a bummer.

Spile.

I kind of fell in love with maple tapping and want to do this pretty much every spring . . . but our backyard doesn't have any maple trees (yet . . . ?).

 Viggo filled his 5-gallon bucket considerably higher than most!

All the buckets were emptied into a tub that could hold 40 gallons of sap.

And then Elin emptied ours . . . without spilling, might I add!

And Svea emptied hers; also neatly.
Good job, ladies!

Then little people had a look.
With everyone's work, the tub was nearly filled in only a short time.

 We carried our empty buckets back to the Sugar Shack to be cleaned and stacked neatly away.

Then one of the students told an Ojibwa legend of why maple trees make sap instead of syrup.
Moral of story: if you want something, you have to work hard for it - really, really hard.
The other moms and I agreed: it was a good story. The Ojibwa legend was a winner!

The Sugar Shack. Where maple syrup magic happens.

 Inside the Sugar Shack, the kids are introduced to the big boilers that boil down the sap to syrup.
It takes 40 gallons of sap to make ONE gallon. The boiler above is named "Little Larry".

 Svea.
She's sweeter than syrup (:

We learn how the sap is boiled, and talk about the difference between maple syrup and, say, Aunt Jemima syrup.
There's kind of a big difference.
For starters, I'm pretty sure Aunt Jemima syrup doesn't involve awesome Ojibwa stories.

Then we got samples - oh joy!

 Elin downed hers immediately.

Yum.
And then we signed up to be volunteers.
So hopefully we'll be able to go back next week and harvest a little more sap.

 After some more running around the Sugar Shack, it was time to go.

 But before we left St John's campus, we stopped at the Stick Houses there.

They were fun to explore!

And if you read the print on this little informative plaque, they are only temporary. At some point this year, they will be torn down, burned, or I don't know what. How do you get rid of stick houses? Call some beavers to repurpose it?

And that concludes our adventures at St Johns. We had a great time!