STAMFORD, Conn. Sap collecting and maple syrup making season kicked off at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center on Thursday as William Kies began inserting taps into trees all over the museum grounds.
Usually between 40 and 80 gallons of syrup are produced annually, and four times that amount of sap is collected, Kies, the director of education for the nature center, said. He added that collecting sap and making syrup is like farming any other crop and there is some unpredictability.
You hope for the best and let Mother Nature run her course, he said. There is a school of thought that more snow means more sap, which proved true last year, when about 90 gallons of syrup were produced, he said.
Sap collecting usually begins when temperatures dips below freezing at night and raise above freezing during the day, which is usually right around St. Valentines Day, he said. The season lasts four to six weeks, Kies said.
Some 900 spiles were donated to the museum from Tap My Tree so children can collect sap from trees at home and make their own syrup, Robin Wexler, director of media relations and marketing at the nature center, said.
The maple syrup season peaks at the nature center the first weekend in March when the center holds its First County Bank Maple Sugar Festival Weekend.
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