Sweets from Mother Nature

There's a reason why that wonderful real maple syrup can be so costly.

"People are generally amazed at how much sap it takes," said Mayme Johnson, program director at Carpenter Nature Center in Hastings.

It can take up to 86 gallons of sap from box elders to create one gallon of syrup, she said. Even the sugar maple, revered for its high sugar content, still requires about 40 gallons of sap for one gallon of syrup.

Then there's the boiling-down process, often done outside over a wood-burning stove in sugar houses. "A lot of times, they are cooking through the night to get it all done," said Eloise Dietz, interpretive naturalist and public program coordinator at Dodge Nature Center in West St. Paul.

Both Dietz and Johnson lead groups out to the "sugarbush" in March to observe the age-old harvesting practice.

"It's such a spring ritual," Johnson said.

"It's fun," Dietz said. "People are so anxious to get out. I just love the month of March. It's such an exciting time of the year. It means a lot of other things in nature are gearing up for spring as well. You see crows gathering. You see pussy willows coming out. You see a few insects. You have all those puddles to stomp in. March is always the anticipation of spring. Everything is just ready to burst."

"There's quite a bit of pressure in a tree to get it up that high," said Linda Radimecky, lead naturalist at Fort Snelling State Park, who takes groups down to the river bottoms to tap their silver maples every spring. "Once the buds pop open, you're done," she said. "It changes the nature of the sap. It gets really bitter."

During the programs, the naturalists teach how to identify trees to tap. You can study the branching of the leaves or the bark patterns or "you can also look at the squirrels and see what buds they are chewing," Radimecky said. "They'll just lick it off of the tree."

Then the naturalists tap the trees with spiles, collect and taste the sap if it's dripping. It actually looks like water and has just a hint of sweetness in this diluted form.

Then everyone gets to watch sap-boiling demonstrations and sample batches from previous years.

"It's very popular," said Fort Snelling employee Cheryl Zumwolt. "Kids love seeing it made. They love the tasting afterward. It's something they can do at home together."

At Fort Snelling, where they talk about the history of maple syrup (Indians first collected sap and boiled it down into syrups and sugar) and serve maple syrup over ice cream, they do worry this year that their program won't run. Last year they were flooded out, and predictions for this year's spring thaw suggest similar flooding.

"That's the big question mark," Radimecky said.

"Another sticky point for this spring is that the water didn't all drain away," she said. The park recommends wearing clothes that can get muddy and rubber boots. "It's a skating rink out there, so it's going to be wet."