Madison Latiolais of the Natick Community Organic Farm helps place a sap bucket onto one ofthe farm’s sugar maple trees on Feb. 12. — Madison Latiolais of the Natick Community Organic Farm helps place a sap bucket
onto one of the farm’s sugar maple trees (Photos by Maureen L. Sullivan)

In the depths of mid-winter chill, a sign of spring hangs on local maple trees.

The Natick Community Organic Farm, off Eliot Street, began its maple-sugaring season on Feb. 12 with the tapping of sugar maples on its property.

Within a few days, farm staff and volunteers will be hanging plastic buckets on more than 400 trees through the area, including at Elm Bank Reservation. Then, over the next several weeks, the farm will be collecting the sap, then boiling it into syrup in its sugar house.

The sweet results will be part of the farm’s annual Maple Magic Pancake Breakfast on March 14 from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Memorial School (next to the farm). The syrup will also be available for purchase at the farm (during Maple Magic and afterward) while supplies last.

Interesting in learning about how maple syrup is made? Sign up for a tour, offered from mid-February through mid-March. Discover the historical maple-sugaring techniques of indigenous peoples and colonists, as well as present-day methods on the farm. Learn about tree identification, qualities of sap and syrup, how to tap, and more at the outdoor displays and tapped trees. If conditions are right, you may get to see sap dripping into buckets, and watch a sap boil.

The cost is $10, and advanced registration is required.