Maple details

SHARON — Here are a few things to know if you plan to make syrup out of the maple sap that is now flowing out of trees and into little metal buckets all around the Northwest Corner.

1) Wear clothing made of all-natural fibers. Making syrup mainly involves constantly keeping a hot fire stoked; synthetic fibers can ignite quickly but natural fibers are less likely to do so.

2) Protect your eyes — and not just from chips of wood that might float up from the logs you are chucking into the fire. After about an hour of leaning over the hot evaporator to see whether the sap is boiling, your eyelashes will begin to stick together.  If you wear glasses, they will need to be cleaned often.

3) If you have fireproof gauntleted gloves, bring them. Otherwise, you’ll have to borrow a pair.

4) Bring a snack. The combination of chucking/gathering wood and smelling the intoxicating scent of boiling maple sap will make you very hungry.

I learned all this last week while volunteering at the Audubon Center in Sharon. Director Scott Heth (a Lakeville Journal Nature’s Notebook columnist) invited me to come by on a Sunday afternoon and help make my absolute favorite sweetener. It was fun and I plan to do it again. Heth will teach anyone interested in committing a few hours to sugar making. Call the center at 860-364-0520 to volunteer (leave a message for Scott or Wendy).

Tours of the sugarhouse at Audubon are held whenever sap is boiling (which is pretty much every day for the next few weeks). The center’s annual MapleFest is March 20, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Volunteers will lead guided tours down Maple Trail, explain the history of sugarmaking and offer samples of fresh syrup.

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