Maple Sugaring

Early Childhood and Lower Elementary students recently embarked on an adventure in maple sugaring! The Sugar Maple is most commonly used in commercial maple sugaring, but here in the Pacific Northwest, we tap Bigleaf Maple trees, which also produce excellent maple syrup. The best weather conditions for maple sugaring, occur in late fall and winter when we have below-freezing temperatures at night and above freezing temperatures during the day. This creates ideal pressure inside the sapwood, that forces sap out of the tree once it is tapped. The best part of this unit? The smells that come from our school kitchen as the sap boils down in to maple syrup!
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