SBMWA Teacher-Naturalists Allison Jackson (left) and Tammy Love (right) collect maple sap from one of the sap collection buckets on the Watershed Reserve.
Where do you think maple syrup is produced? If you answered Vermont or Canada, then you aren’t alone. But did you know that for centuries people have been producing maple syrup each winter right here in New Jersey? The Teacher-Naturalists at the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Reserve in Hopewell Township have been tapping sugar maple trees on the nature reserve, collecting and boiling the sweet sap and producing small batches of syrup for years. On Saturday, March 2 they will explain the sap to syrup process and recreate this age-old technique for the public in a program entitled Maple Sugar Memories.
The sugaring season is brief in New Jersey — barely two months long. Once the trees are tapped — usually in late January — and the sap begins to flow freely, the constant work of producing maple syrup begins. At the Watershed Reserve, four or five sugar maples are chosen each year for tapping. Timing and temperature are everything when it comes to maple syrup production. When daytime temperatures rise above freezing and nighttime temperatures plunge below freezing, it’s the right time for sap collection. This year, the warm and sunny winter days in our area have made the sap flow freely and abundantly. The clear sap must be collected daily and boiled down to produce the familiar amber-hued pancake topper.
“It takes about 40 gallons of maple tree sap to produce one gallon of maple syrup” said SBMWA Teacher-Naturalist Allison Jackson. “Many visitors ask us if we sell our maple syrup, but unfortunately we produce only enough for our educational programs. This year’s batch is already turning out to be especially sweet and delicious.”
Allison and fellow SBMWA Teacher-Naturalist Tammy Love are conducting the maple syrup program on the Watershed Reserve for the public on Saturday, March 2 at 10:30 a.m. Maple Sugar Memories.
For more information, call the SBMWA Education department at (609) 737-7592 for more information and to register. The Watershed Reserve is located at 31 Titus Mill Road in Hopewell Township. On the Web: thewatershed.org.
SBMWA Teacher-Naturalists Allison Jackson (left) and Tammy Love (right) collect maple sap from one of the sap collection buckets on the Watershed Reserve.,
