SAUGUS — Breakheart Reservation continued its longstanding tradition of Maple Sugarin’ for the 36th year on Saturday, offering visitors different demonstrations put on by members of the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
There wasn’t a parking spot in sight as people of all ages walked to the different stations, excited to learn a bit of history.
Kids gathered around a boiling cauldron to learn about the history of maple sugaring, practiced two-person hand saw skills, watched a live tree tapping, and tasted some syrup.
Visitor Services Supervisor Jessica Narog-Hutton explained some of the history of the event and why it’s so important to keep the tradition going.
“Breakheart Reservation has actually been doing maple sugaring the longest in the state. We’ve been doing it since the ’80s when our original parks advisor, Josh Cline, started the program,” Narog-Hutton said.
Cline had been a key component in turning Breakheart into a welcoming space for all who entered.
“It’s super important to keep it (maple sugaring) going today, so that all the new generations can be the new stewards of the land and see how important it is to have trees and how hard the Indigenous people had to work to get all the things that they use on the land,” she said.
Members of DCR were split into different stations, showing off different tools used in the process of tree tapping, how the syrup is made, and even splitting logs.
“It’s very engaging and very hands-on,” Narog-Hutton said. “Every station we offer here, we have some aspect of making sure the public, children, families, and the adults all get engaged in what they’re seeing and how hard the work is to get maple syrup from sap.”
When asked what her favorite part of the event was, she said it was the live tree tapping.
“Because of the weather today, I know it’s windy, but the weather is ideal, so once I tap the tree, the sap starts flowing immediately. It’s very gratifying,” she said.
Narog-Hutton continued that in the future, she would love to once again have a proper sugar house at the reservation.
“We had to tear the old one down two years ago because it was rotting, so I’d love to have a sugar shack back on the property,” she said.
Sugar shacks are an important part of the process of turning sap into syrup as it’s where the collected sap is boiled down to make the syrup, and many can be found around New England and Canada.
“I just really hope that we can keep this program going so that grandchildren can be like, ‘Hey, my grandparents took me here.’ And we can just continue that nice community feeling we get here at Breakheart,” Narog-Hutton said. “We have this community feel. I know almost every single dog and visitor that comes into this park…This is a neighborhood essentially, so it’d be so important that 30 years from now, kids can tell their kids that they were here.”
