Now’s the time to tap maple trees for sugar syrup, and you can learn how at a free Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) workshop this Saturday.
Trees can be tapped for sap in the late winter, and with which a bit of boiling, can be turned into maple syrup. Learn how to do it at a MDC Maple Sugar Workshops at two locations on Saturday, February 18.
When temperatures rise above freezing and then drop below freezing, pressure is created in the trees that prompts water and nutrients to flow in a tree’s sapwoods. Sugar maple sap has about three-percent sugar content, which is higher than other trees. According to MDC, that’s why they’re most often tapped. Other trees such as walnuts also have sap and can be tapped. It takes about 40 gallons of maple sugar sap to produce a gallon of syrup. A walnut tree must provide 80 gallons of sap for a gallon of syrup.
Participants will be provided with the necessary tools, including a drill, a tap and a bucket. The workshops will offer participants tips on good methods and timing to tap maples and other tree species for syrup making.
MDC’s Burr Oak Woods Nature Center will offer the workshop from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, at 1401 N.W. Park Road in Blue Springs, MO. The workshop is free, but registration is required. To register, call 816-228-3766.
The Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center will teach maple sugaring and other woodcraft skills with a free Urban Woodsman III program from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at 4750 Troost Ave., Kansas City, MO. This walk-in program will also address woodcraft such as how to split firewood, sharpen axes and accurately measure a cord of wood. For more information, call 816-759-7300.
To learn more about how trees make sap and people make maple sugar, visit MDC.
