The Sweetest Season of The Year

— Mary Gillick, Program Director

As we approach the vernal equinox in March, you can hear an early sign of spring — the sound of maple sap dripping into metal buckets. On mild days, the sweet sugar sap used to make maple syrup begins to flow upward in the sapwood (or xylem) layer just under the tree bark. 

This sugary mix has been stored in the trees since it was produced using photosynthesis during the summer months.  Deciduous trees, like the sugar maple, are dormant from October through March and drop their leaves in autumn the trees prevent precious water loss. The flow of sap is one of the first signs that the trees are “waking up” for spring.

A tree is “tapped” with a spile or spout that is inserted into a small hole through the outer bark made using a bit and brace hand drill.

When the temperature is cool at night and climbs to about forty degrees during the day, the sap begins to rise in the xylem.  This process will start and stop as the weather fluctuates.  Syrup producers take advantage of each sap run, collecting the sap in buckets or through gravity-fed lines.  The sap is then boiled down to a delicious syrup. 

Did you know it takes forty to fifty gallons of sap to make just one gallon of syrup?! A single tap can yield around ten gallons of sap and multiple taps can be made on a mature tree.  But, it takes hundreds of trees for a commercial venture and the season can vary from a few weeks to a couple of months.

If you are visiting the Rye Nature Center in the next few weeks look for metal buckets hung on red and sugar maple trees near the building and the playground.  You may hear and see the drip of the maple sap if the weather cooperates! Check out the sign on the tree between the kiosk and the garden for tips on how to identify a sugar maple.