Turning Sap Into Syrup At Ambler Farm's Tap-A-Tree Program

It was a warm February morning and my son and I joined a group of families as we gathered at Ambler Farm in Wilton, CT to kick off the maple sugaring season. We were greeted by Program Director Kevin Meehan and received an introductory lesson on how to tap a maple tree. Most of us stood in awe as the sap started to drip out of the tree upon tapping it. Many cheered with excitement for what was about to begin was a fantastic winter farming adventure and a great lesson in farm-to-table.

We then received our buckets from Assistant Program Manager Jennifer Grass and proceeded to carefully select our “Giving Trees” on the farm. We hung our buckets on the trees and captured photos to commemorate the day. (Our tree was number 42 and pretty far from the sugar shack! It was an adventure after all!) Then we waited. We waited a week. During that week, many of us wondered just how much sap we would find in our buckets when we returned to the farm. 

Finally, the week of waiting was over and it was time for us to return to our trees to see the progress. Winter farming is very weather dependent and has many variables, one of which requires days with temperatures above freezing and nights where temperatures are below freezing. With warm days and nights, it didn’t yield much sap that week. We were encouraged that farming takes patience and we collected what we could, hung our buckets back on the trees, and hoped for those warm days and freezing cold nights to come. Another week went by and an arctic blast brought a ton of sap pouring into our buckets! It was truly a magical moment when we lifted the top off of the buckets to see them full.

Now we were busy collecting and it was heavy with much of the sap frozen solid. With the help of friends, we carried the sap ice blocks to the sugar shack and then we helped others with their buckets too. The kids enjoyed working as a team of farmers, running freely on the property, lending a hand where needed. Every drip of sap counted, especially as it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.

When we returned the following weeks for sap collection, the evaporator was running and the aroma at the sugar shack was like creme brûlée! We were in the final step of the process where sap with approximately 2% sugar gets boiled down to a perfect 67% sugar, which is considered maple syrup. Finally a chance to taste the sweet fruits of our labor! 

At the end of the season, each family in the Tap-a-Tree program will receive a bottle of maple syrup from the “crop share” to enjoy. The next time we sit down for a plate of pancakes, we won’t pour the syrup so carelessly. We will savor each and every bite, thinking about all that we learned along the way. We will remember the invaluable experience at Ambler Farm this winter, and the sweet memories we made together as a family and a community, learning how to make maple syrup.

There are a total of 580 buckets at locations throughout Wilton, CT including Ambler Farm, and several school and town properties. The junior high school students at Middlebrook meet after school for a maple sugaring club to tap trees and collect sap on school grounds. Many students from the apprentice high school sugaring program are also tasked to tap trees, collect sap, run the evaporator, and educate visiting guests of the farm about the process of maple sugaring.

It’s not too late to experience New England’s great tradition of turning sap into syrup! There will be a Maple Syrup Open House held on Saturday February 29th, March 7th, and March 14th at 1-2pm. There will be opportunities to “tap a tree”, learn the process of making syrup, take a taste test, and enjoy Ambler Farm’s very own maple syrup over vanilla ice cream. Bottles of maple syrup will also be available for purchase at the event.

To learn more about Ambler Farm, visit www.ambler farm.org