Watch maple syrup made from scratch

Do you like pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast? How about seeing how real maple syrup is made from scratch?

A free Maple Sugar Festival for kids of all ages will be held Saturday, Feb. 19, at the Rockwood Reservation in southwest St. Louis County. Hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Call for reservations, starting Feb. 1, at (636) 458-2236.

The festival's main attraction will be watching the making of maple syrup. That process starts with drawing sap from the trunks of sugar maple trees in the reservation's "sugar bush" forest. Then, the sap is simmered to evaporate water and leave only the sweet stuff.

Oftentimes, weather in February still feels like winter. But, in Missouri, this is the month maple trees feel spring coming.

Naturalist Anna-Lisa Tucker said the key in Missouri is February combines some warm days and cold nights. The sap starts to flow when daytime temperatures get to 40 degrees or higher while the nighttime temperatures drop to 30 or below.

When that weather comes, the maple trees start to send sap from the roots to the branches. The sap contains sugar food to help the tree break out of its winter hibernation.

Naturalist Anna-Lisa Tucker

Ms. Tucker already has started planning for the Maple Sugar Festival.

On Thursday, Jan. 20, she and other reservation workers drilled holes in the tree trunks and inserted metal taps. The taps will siphon sap that is flowing from the roots to the branches. Buckets are hung from the taps to collect the sap.

Workers are careful to tap only mature trees. Also, they take only some of the sap.

Workers are careful to tap only mature trees. Also, they take only some of the sap.

If you tap small maples, you might take out too much to allow for normal growth during the rest of the year.

Last year, Rockwood Reservation workers collected a lot of extra sap and put it into the freezer. Anna-Lisa said, "The first syrup we make at this year's festival will come from last year's sap."

She said, at the start of the season, only a little bit of sap is running. "But, later, we have to empty the big buckets twice a day from just one tree," she said.

Kids attending the festival will get a chance to taste sap right from the tree. But, don't expect to taste much sweetness. The original sap contains only 2 to 3 per cent sugar.

To get syrup you want for your pancakes, sap has to be simmered for a long time to evaporate water. And it takes lots of sap to make just a little real maple syrup. For example, you have to simmer 3 gallons of sap to get just one cup of finished syrup.

But, Anna-Lisa says it's worth the effort.

She said, "Kids can't believe the difference in taste between real maple syrup and that made from corn syrup."

Anna-Lisa said kids also like to see the change in color when new sap is added to some that has been simmering for some time. As sap is simmered, the concentrated mixture turns a darker color.

"When new, clear sap is added, it lightens up the whole batch," she said.

People at the festival will get a chance to taste freshly-made syrup on pancakes.

And, Anna-Lisa is also planning a new treat.

She's got an old-fashioned recipe and some brand-new candy molds. The molds are made from rubber so it's easy to pop out the candies as soon as the pieces set.

Depending on the time of the season the sap is tapped, maple syrup can look and taste different, she said.

Early in the season, sap is often clearer. When that sap is simmered into syrup, it has a lighter color and more delicate taste. "That's the Grade A Fancy syrup," Anna-Lisa said.

Later in the season, syrup has a browner color and has a stronger maple taste, she said.

During the festival, kids will be able to watch every step of the syrup-making process.

You can go into the woods and help collect the sap. Then, the buckets of sap are brought to the evaporation shed where you can watch it simmer and get sweeter.

Of course, then there's the real fun part. That's the tasting.

You'll get a chance to taste the difference between real maple syrup and the store-bought stuff made from corn syrup.