Our new naturalist, Jenny Rupp was part of the crew that tapped our first maple trees of the season this past Saturday. She is anxious for her first syruping season!
What a marvelous winter it has been for those of us who enjoy being outdoors! Winter is sneaky sometimes, and waits for the most inopportune time to bring on the cold weather! If you found yourselves out and about on Saturday morning, you may have noticed a severe drop in temperature from the day before. At the Indian Creek Nature Center, we can’t wait to start preparing for spring and the Annual Maple Syrup Festival!
Saturday, volunteers from the community and staff from the nature center could be seen making their way down Wood Duck Lane carrying drills and hammers. Not even a negative wind-chill could stop us from taking the first steps toward delicious maple syrup! Now is the time to start collecting the sweet sap that is just beginning to slip through the trunks of the trees! It only took an hour for our great group of volunteers to make a dent in the sugar bush. Some of the trees had even started dripping before we left the area! Here’s hoping for a great sap season!
If you happen to have access to silver maple trees and are interested in tapping them this spring, come down and get some spiles (the metal spouts that help gravity pull the sap out of the tree) and more information from the friendly staff at our center.
~Jenny Rupp