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Audubon slowly emerges from COVID for annual Maple Fest

Audubon slowly emerges from COVID for annual Maple Fest
Wendy Miller, Audubon education program manager, explained how 40 gallons of sap is needed to produce 1 gallon of maple syrup. Maple sap season is peaking now.
Photo by Hunter O. Lyle

SHARON — Sharon’s Audubon Center opened to visitors for the first time in a year, for the annual Maple Fest.

The educational 45-minute tours were offered this year on Saturday, March 20, followingCOVID-19 protocols. Individuals and small groups had to register in advance for a time slot; the tours were completely booked up by Saturday.

Sample tastes of the sweet amber syrup weren’t offered this year, although visitors could buy bottles of syrup after their tour. 

For this year’s syrup showcase, 81 participants in 12 groups walked along the trail lined with maple trees, most of which had old-fashioned metal buckets attached to their trunks, to collect the sweet, clear sap.

The visitors learned about sugar bushes (a cluster of sugar maple trees) and spiles (the tool that lets sap drip from the maple tree into the bucket) along the way. 

Audubon naturalist Bethany Sheffer showed how a Lazy Man’s Balance can be used to cook the sap outdoors, evaporating out the water until the sap turns to syrup.

She explained how Native Americans first discovered that the sap boils down so deliciously.

The next stop was Audubon’s own sugar house, where Education Program Manager Wendy Miller explained the modern technology used for turning 40 gallons of sap into a single gallon of syrup.

Miller said that most of the families that attended the event had never come to Maple Fest before. They had the good fortune to come on a warm, sunny first day of spring.

“They all seemed really happy and asked great questions, and we all had a lot of fun,” she said. 

Hunter O. Lyle

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