Maple Sugaring

This is Pennsylvania maple syrup--mmm mmm good.

This was a demonstration, around the colonial era, of how they cooked the sap down into maple syrup.

In this demonstration, the men cooked rocks on an open fire, to heat them up. They then placed them in the cut out log filled with sap. This is how the American Indians would have cooked down the sap.

You can see the jug attached to the tree. It is partially filled with the sap.

It takes 40 gallons of sugar maple sap to get 1 gallon of maple syrup.

This was a Maple Sugaring event that we went to at a local state park. Talk about a great find. For $1 per person, we were given a grand tour and demonstration of how the maple sugaring process works and the history behind it. The girls also participated in a taste testing and craft time. Then at the end, we all got pancakes with you guessed it maple syrup drizzled on top. It was a very educational activity, but oh so much fun. My middle daughter even got to help 'tap' a tree. The girls were so impressed with this activity. We extended it at home with making books (which still aren't done, thanks to me), hopefully they will be done by next maple sugar season--haha.