About a month ago, we read two Curious George books about maple syrup and pancakes. In one of them, George runs out of syrup and goes out in the woods and learns how maple syrup is made. In the second, George makes pancakes at a pancake fundraiser. Annabeth really enjoyed each of the books and kept mentioning "Make-Up Syrup." The next week, a homeschool facebook page I follow had a field trip opportunity to learn how maple syrup is collected and made at Southeastway Park.
We were very blessed and today was one of the warmest this week (about 25 degrees) and no new snow since Saturday night so we had clear roads and a pretty warm hike in the woods. We enjoyed a short powerpoint about Maple trees and then headed out to the woods. We spent more than an hour hiking through their Maple tree area and Annabeth really enjoyed getting to practice drilling holes and hammering in her own spile in practice logs. She was not interested in trying the sap though; she said "It might burn my tongue." After our time in the woods, we were able to back to the nature center and see their setup for turning the sap into syrup. At the end, we were each given a sample of syrup which Annabeth happily ate ALL of! :)
Checking out one of the park's real buckets that will collect sap on warmer days this winter.
The park generally collects enough sap to make 20 gallons of syrup.
Drilling a hole in the log with a hand drill
Hammering in her spile.
She was most interested in using tools like she does with Mark at home.
We had a great day out hiking and I think, like many of the kids, Annabeth just enjoyed being out in the snow. Southeastway is my favorite big park and I love living only about an hour away.
2 comments:
What a fun field trip! We love tapping Maple trees.
Abbi - I thought of you all on our trip! For your family this is a valuable lifeskill that you have not just a field trip! :)
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