PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It’s time for sugar maple tree tapping, a winter hobby that turns tree sap into syrup, and it’s happening at Wissahickon Valley Park in Northwest Philadelphia.
The Andorra Natural Area of Wissahickon Valley Park is a 210-acre site that features nature trails and the Wissahickon Environmental Center. Susan Haidar, education planner at the center, leads the way to the “sugar bush” — an area with a lot of sugar maple trees.
The goal: to tap sugar maple trees for their sap to make syrup.
After a healthy tree is identified, a brace, which is a drill that is cranked by hand, is used to bore a hole in the trunk.
Ethan Craven, age 9, of Abington was among some kids giving it a go.
“I just turned that drill and made a hole in the bark and then the sap started to drip,” Craven said.
With a hammer, a spout is then tapped into the tree trunk. Sap then drips out and collects in a hanging bucket.
After collecting the sap, it goes back to the environmental center and gets turned into maple syrup.
Tony Croasdale, supervisor of the environmental center, explains the process.
“We collect sap and we bring it to this evaporator, and it gets very thick and pretty dark, but it’s not quite syrup yet,” he said. “We have to bring it inside and heat it up to 219 degrees. And then, once it reaches that temperature, we pour it through a filter and into jars. Then you have syrup. But if you heat it longer, then it starts to crystallize — and then you can make candy.”
He explains, 96% of sap is water, which is evaporated to make the syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.
Sugar maple trees can be tapped when the temperature is below freezing at night and above 40 degrees in the day, so the pressure in the tree can cause the sap to flow.