Students join in on maple sugaring at Breakheart

SAUGUS – What is about 8 years old, inquisitive and sticky?That would be third graders trekking through the Maple Sugaring program at Breakheart Reservation.Each spring, rangers, park supervisors and Friends of Breakheart tap into the maple trees scattered over the 640-acre park and fire up the evaporator to churn out not only a sweet treat but an educational lesson as well.The event brings in scores of third graders from area schools as well as other youth organizations, for a free lesson on tree tapping, maple sugaring history, wood harvesting, and, of course, sampling the real deal, some maple syrup drizzled not only on pancakes, but popcorn as well.Ranger Matthew Nash had students step up and bend an ear toward a sugar maple to hear the sap drop, drip by drip, into the metal bucket. Students also got to look at the sap and finally taste it.”It tastes like nothing,” said a surprised Andy Nou, although at least one classmate disagreed, claiming the sap tasted like cotton candy. Nash told the students it looked and tasted like water because the sap was primarily water, with just a little bit of sugar.While Nash had students identifying maples by their branches and buds and learning how to tap in an actual tap, Ranger Lynn Hildebrandt gave the students a history lesson.Hildebrandt told the students of a time, roughly 7,000 years ago, when a Native American watched a deer lick an icicle hanging off a branch while a bird circled above showing interest. Curious, Hildebrandt said the Indian tasted the icicle as well and found it to be sweet.As she told her story of how maple sugar was discovered, Hildebrandt paced around a wood fed fire, using a long pair of iron tongs to shuffle rocks around the burning embers. The children gasped as she carefully picked up a large stone with the tongs, walked over to what looked like a hollowed out tree stump and dropped it in.The sizzle as the hot rock hit the sap was audible and the awe on the students’ faces palpable.Hildebrandt explained that with no iron for pots, that was how the Native Americans figured out how to cook the sap down past the maple stage to sugar.”They didn’t need syrup, because they didn’t have any nice little glass bottles to put it in,” she added. “They wanted sugar.”Pancakes and popcorn aside, most of the students would tell you that the highlight of the maple adventure was the wood demonstration. Joey and Mary took the kids through the paces of sawing wood with a two-person saw, using a chainsaw and a wood splitter.”The wood is the most important,” said Joey. “Without it there is no fire to melt down the sap.”Park Supervisor Charles Petrucci walked the children through the final stages of the sugaring process in the sugar shack.Petrucci explained how the three-compartment evaporator worked, heating the sap and cooking it until the water dissipated and only the sugar in the form of syrup remained.”It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup,” he told the kids. Then he laughed when one student asked what kind of maple syrup Petrucci would end up with.”There’s really only one kind,” he said. “There’s no chocolate syrup being made here. Maple syrup is just, well, maple syrup.”Despite the long process, the general consensus among the students during the taste-testing portion of the trip was it was worth the wait.Harris Behremovic said not only was it worth the wait to simply taste it, he wanted to try to make it himself one day.”It is really, really good,” added Dario Cocchi, bobbing his head.Alex Caggiano said the only drawback to the whole experience was the pancake was too small.”I couldn’t believe it was so small,” he lamented. “I wanted one as big as this (picnic) table.”