Maple Sugar Festival

We just discovered this year that there is an annual Maple Sugar Festival in St. Louis at Rockwoods Reservation, one of the sites run by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Parking was limited on-site, so we took school buses from a local school parking lot to the venue. 

After a short bus ride, we arrive.  There are already several hundred people. 

There was a raffle.

People got hands-on experience tapping maple trees.  Here, a girl is drilling a hole in the sample tree to insert a spile, a small spout that directs sap from the tree into a collection bucket.

After the hole is drilled, the spile is gently tapped into the tree.  The hook on the bottom is to hang the collection bucket.

Carrying sap from the trees to the camp the old fashioned way!

At this station, guests were able to taste raw tree sap.  Since sap is mostly water, there is almost no noticeable taste at this stage.  To collect sap, nighttime temperatures have to be below freezing, but must rise above freezing during the day.

This is a more modern collection system.  Tubes run between trees with taps.  The tubes go into the shack on the left, which has a large container to collect sap.  This is much easier than checking and emptying individual buckets of sap on every tree.

After the maple sap is collected, the water content has to be reduced to concentrate the sugar and flavor.

Sap is mostly water, containing only about 3 percent sugar, so it is placed in an evaporator to remove water until the syrup is about 67 percent sugar.  It takes 40 gallons of sap from sugar maple trees to yield just 1 gallon of maple syrup.

Several stations with maple-related treats were set up around the site.  This one was serving kettle corn made with maple sugar.

This station was giving out little pancakes, covered with real maple syrup.

This treat, called "Sugar on Snow", was made by taking maple syrup that had been cooked to an almost candy consistency, then dropping it into shaved ice.  

The mix could then be taken out and eaten using toothpicks. 

Information booths were set up around the site where visitors could chat with knowledgeable people about maple trees, tree identification, tapping and making syrup, or just general information.  One booth even had information about "backyard tapping", for tapping trees and making maple syrup at home.

Samples to identify different types of trees. 

A small tent was set up where a band played.  Bales of hay were spread around for people to sit and relax.

Inside the cabin, several craft stations were set up for the kids.