Maple Syrup Season Starts Early at Eastman Nature Center
Families in Maple Grove got a hands-on opportunity to learn about the maple syrup season earlier this week. More chances are coming up throughout the month.
On Monday, area homeschool students took to the sugar bush behind Eastman Nature Center. A sugar bush holds a number of trees that produce sap to produce maple syrup.
“In Minnesota, maple syrup season is traditionally in March,” said Brandon Baker, interpretive naturalist with the Three Rivers Park District. “This year, this season is a little bit weird. We didn’t have much of a winter, so the season really started in late January, early February.”
Baker walked the students through identifying and understanding the trees’ production process.
“Maple syruping is about stories, and when families come out here and they are maple syruping with us, they are creating their own stories,” Baker said. “These stories connect them with nature and with place, and helps them come to care about these areas.”
Baker said this also gives people some perspective on our changing environment.
“People can start to see how climate change is directly affecting their lives. This spring is a great example of climate change completely changing our winter in Minnesota and affecting our maple syruping tradition,” Baker said.
Kids got to help Baker drill into and tap a tree. Once the spout was in place, Baker attached a bucket to collect sap. He said trying this out, hands-on, is a way for people to understand the land we live on today.
The group of students got to help Baker tap a spout into the maple tree.
“There is a rich history with maple syruping and sugaring in Minnesota. The Dakota and Ojibwe have been sugaring in Minnesota for hundreds, if not thousands of years,” Baker said.
After that, they got to see their sap be poured into a cauldron and boiled down.
“The longer we cook it, the darker it’s going to get,” Baker explained.
Kids also got to watch a video about the Native history of maple sugaring. Right after, Baker used maple syrup from last year’s maple season to create maple sugar. That’s created by heating and stirring maple syrup.
Baker stirred some of last years’ syrup to make maple sugar for kids to try during the event.
Monday’s event was just one of a number of Eastman events highlighting syrup season. A full list of events with dates and registration information is available on Three Rivers Park District’s website.
Eastman is also hosting a Maple Syrup Festival on March 23. It costs $6 and will give people the chance to try maple sugar and maple syrup sundaes. More information about that event is available on its Facebook page.
