TUPPER LAKE — The Wild Center is celebrating all things maple this month.
The Wild Center will be producing its own maple syrup with the help of the Tupper Lake community. Inside its fully-operational sugar shack, visitors will have the opportunity to watch how the sweet sap of trees becomes the highlight of a pancake breakfast. Those who complete a maple-themed scavenger hunt will be entered into a drawing to win a variety of Wild Center prizes. Maple-themed Lunchtime Lives and other digital programs will also be available to the public.
New York state’s Maple Weekends take place on March 19-20 and March 26-27. Maple Weekends showcase all the maple products that are made in New York state.
Tupper Lakers can join the Wild Center’s Community Maple Project, an education program and one of the first-of-its kind in the state, for backyard tapping and maple production. Community members are invited to pick up all necessary tapping equipment free of charge at the Wild Center, tap maple trees in their yards and when the sap begins to flow, coordinate collection with a Wild Center representative daily during the sugaring season. Once returned to the Wild Center, the sap will be boiled down into maple syrup.
Participating community members will receive 70% of the finished product (pure maple syrup) from the sap they provide (typically 40 gallons of sap equals one gallon of maple syrup, or a half-gallon of pure maple syrup to a supplier).
Those interested in the project can reach out to Shannon Surdyk at ssurdyk@wildcenter.org or 518-359-7800. For more information, please visit us online at wildcenter.org/maple.
