Maple syrup fans of all ages loaded up on all-you-can eat pancakes with all the fixins, topped with plenty of real, local maple syrup at the Natick Organic Community Farm’s (NCOF) annual Maple Magic Day breakfast.
Although it may seem like magic for the syrup to get from sugar maple tree to pancake topping (or waffles, or oatmeal, or ice cream, or…) NCOF farmers can tell you that the process is more like hard work. When winter nights are below freezing and the days are above freezing, NCOF volunteers and staff take that as their cue to tap 700-800 sugar maple trees across five local communities (Natick, Wellesley, Dover, Sherborn, and Holliston), on both public and private land, all with permission of the land owners and stewards.
As the buckets fill, farmers collect the clear, water-like sap which runs from tree to tap into the signature blue buckets. Once the sap is collected, it’s brought to the sugar shack, where it gets boiled down into maple syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Sugar maple tree sap generally starts flowing in early February and keeps going for 4-6 weeks.
So far this year farmers have made about 60 gallons of syrup, and they expect about 20 more to follow before the season ends, likely in mid-March. In banner years NCOF make 100 gallons or more of maple syrup.
We stopped into the sugar shack, where farmers were giving educational tours. Dark, mysterious, and smoky, the shack is where the magic happens.
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