110 Gallons of Sap Collected, 11 Volunteers Soaked!

On Saturday March 13th, 11 volunteers came out from our metro-west buildings to help our nonprofit partner Gaining Ground close down its first annual sugar tapping season.

Gaining Ground, a volunteer-run farm in Concord, MA, donates all of its products to area food pantries and
meal programs. The fresh produce and syrups are consumed within 20
miles of the farm and within 24 hours of harvest.

We had volunteers bring their children, their friend, or just themselves. We also had folks come out from the same office building, and meet for the very first time! Our volunteers caravanned all over Concord, where private families and the municipality itself donated their property's sugar maple trees for tapping. We collected the sap, buckets, and taps from approximately 55 trees scattered about town. We filled up 2 large garbage barrels (110 gallons!) with fresh sap, and headed back to the sugar house on the farm.

From there, we had a chance to learn about the boiling process and watch as we filtered, boiled, and tasted the fruits (or shall we say the syrups) of our labor.

Check out our pictures below!

We had about 15 stops around town, and anywhere from 3-20 trees per stop!

For each bucket we had to remove it carefully, and check to see how much sap was collected. (the kids loved this part!)

The weather was no match for our volunteers!

After we made our rounds, we all gathered in the sugar house to boil the sap down to syrup.

Here's the final product! This incredible syrup is given away for free to local food programs and pantries.

Here we are, after braving the cold and rain, warming up over the huge wood-fire fueled boiler.