The Dallas County Conservation Board will hold its annual maple syruping boil down at the Sportsman Park east of Dawson from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturday, March 7.
“Thanks to these unseasonably warm temps, this week will be the pop up maple syruping boil off program,” said Ken Keffer, outreach coordinator with the Dallas County Conservation Board. “The sap has been flowing for a couple of weeks, and now is the time to cook off the excess water and turn sap into syrup. Folks are encouraged to stop by and learn about the process from tree to table.”
As trees that have been dormant through the winter begin responding to the lengthening days and warmer temperatures, they send sap flowing through their systems inn order to nourish the tiny leaf and flower buds at stems’ ends. Conservation staff naturalists siphon off some of the sweet sap of native maple trees and boil it down to make maple syrup each year.
“It takes 40 gallons or so of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup,” according to Dallas County Conservation Board Naturalist Cindy Blobaum. “The boil down process will take a few hours, but the rewards are worth it in the end.”
The conservation department taps maple trees in late winter as temperatures climb above freezing. The initial tree tapping involved going outside to drill small holes in select maple trees, installing taps and hooking up the collection system. This year the maple trees were tapped in early February, and the tree sap was collected for a few weeks.
Blobaum will be cooking off the excess water and transforming the sap to sweet maple syrup Saturday morning. The public is invited to stop by to see — and taste — the process from start to finish, when the tastiest results appear. The demonstration shows how easy it easy to make maple syrup in your own woods.
For more information, contact the Dallas County Conservation Board at 515-465-3577 or conservation@dallascountyiowa.gov.
