Turning sap to syrup at Audubon

SHARON — Visitors to Sharon Audubon Center in Sharon Saturday, March 16, took walking tours, stocked up on baked treats, and got a look at how maple syrup is made.

Wendy Miller, who is the education program manager at Sharon Audubon, was alone in the sugar shack waiting for the first group of visitors.

She fed logs into the large, wood-fired apparatus and asked a visitor, “Is it steamy enough in here?”

It was. The first group filed in, blinking a bit at the clouds of fragrant steam issuing from the bubbling sap.

Miller explained how maple sap is turned into maple syrup. It takes roughly 40 gallons of sap to get a gallon of syrup, she explained: “All we need to do is boil it. It turns into syrup by itself.”

The goal is to get the sap, which is 3% sugar, to turn into syrup — at 67% sugar — so the sugarers need to be on their toes.

If it boils too long, the result is solid and granular, definitely palatable but not practical if you’re thinking about pouring it on pancakes or waffles.

When the syrup reaches a temperature of 219 degrees Fahrenheit, it is almost finished. A hydrometer is then used to determine the sugar content.

If that is satisfactory, the almost-syrup is processed through a press that has seven filters, to remove what is known as “sugar sand” — minerals, mostly, plus any bugs that eluded previous screenings.