Monday, February 21, 2011

100% Sweet

Last summer my husband, Drew and I worked as Camp Counselors at the Cincinnati Nature Center. We love going out there to hike around and about a month or two ago we found out about a Maple Syrup Making class they were having. Drew immediately volunteered to help out and has been counting down the days ever since! So the day finally came this past Saturday where Drew got to put his "woodsy-ness" to the test and tap a real tree.  My mom and I went up to walk and check it out and it was so much fun!  The event was free and started out with a guided hike along a maple trail where you see tons of trees being tapped. 

You take a bucketful of the sap and add it to a huge barrel. When the barrel is full you take it back to what they call the sugar room where you dump the sap into an evaporator.  The evaporator is run by a fire and the sap eventually turns into delicious maple syrup. 

 
We got to taste it fresh from the tree and it was the most amazing maple syrup I have EVER had. YUM! 

 My grandma grew up in Vermont (home to Maple Syrup) so my mom was telling me about how they used to pour fresh maple syrup over snow and eat it as a treat. I think I'd like to try that someday. So in conclusion, tapping trees for syrup is fun and if you ever get a chance to see it in action you should!
See this website if you are interested in trying it out next weekend! http://www.cincynature.org/events/maple-syrup-making-22611.html

1 comment:

CarrieJo said...

Anything with sugar and I am in!