For the past four years we have spent the third week of March at the Jennings Environmental Center's maple sugaring program. The center invites traditional schools, home schoolers and scout troops to sign up for a 1 hour maple sugaring crash course. The tour begins in the classroom where one of the rangers gives a talk about the biology, chemistry and physical make up of the beautiful maple tree. Students learn about the variety of maple species, how to identify a maple and what makes sap flow in trees. After the talk they go out on the maple trail and have first hand experience of tapping a tree and if the weather is right they see sap dripping into a bucket from a real sugar maple. Jennings has a small sugar bush and throughout the week have the evaporator boiling for the students to see and smell the sap boiling. After the last stop at the evaporator and a taste of the real thing (many of these students and adults think Mrs. Butterworths and Log Cabin is pure maple syrup) they can stop by our booth to purchase a variety of maple products. One of our best sellers in my wife's maple popcorn, and this year we made maple cotton candy (we made a few extra bags and are saving them for Easter). The staff at Jennings are very knowledgeable and provide seminars and classes throughout the year in on a variety of topics. One upcoming seminar thats sounds fun is about the benefits of bats and how to build your own bat house. As always we had a great year and plan to be back next year.
For the past four years we have spent the third week of March at the Jennings Environmental Center's maple sugaring program. The center invites traditional schools, home schoolers and scout troops to sign up for a 1 hour maple sugaring crash course. The tour begins in the classroom where one of the rangers gives a talk about the biology, chemistry and physical make up of the beautiful maple tree. Students learn about the variety of maple species, how to identify a maple and what makes sap flow in trees. After the talk they go out on the maple trail and have first hand experience of tapping a tree and if the weather is right they see sap dripping into a bucket from a real sugar maple. Jennings has a small sugar bush and throughout the week have the evaporator boiling for the students to see and smell the sap boiling. After the last stop at the evaporator and a taste of the real thing (many of these students and adults think Mrs. Butterworths and Log Cabin is pure maple syrup) they can stop by our booth to purchase a variety of maple products. One of our best sellers in my wife's maple popcorn, and this year we made maple cotton candy (we made a few extra bags and are saving them for Easter). The staff at Jennings are very knowledgeable and provide seminars and classes throughout the year in on a variety of topics. One upcoming seminar thats sounds fun is about the benefits of bats and how to build your own bat house. As always we had a great year and plan to be back next year.
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