Stratford Ecological Center & Maple Syrup!

On Friday our Homeschool Group took a field trip to Stratford Ecological Center (a non-profit organic educational farm and nature preserve) for a Maple Sugar and Farm tour. This was our family's first visit to Stratford and the kids really enjoyed it.

Our visit started with a quarter mile hike through the woods to the Sugar Shack (I had to carry Corinne most of the way there and back because she was a bit tired and getting grumpy). Along the way we learned how the maple trees are tapped and the sap collected in buckets. Our volunteer guide told us that the best and most abundant sap flow occurs when day time temperatures are above freezing and night time temps dip below freezing, so the trees are typically tapped in February and sap collection continues into March. Once we arrived at the Sugar Shack we learned how the sap is poured into a big outside container attached to the building and a long tube leading from the container carries the sap to the boiling stove. The stove is heated by a wood burning fire and the sap is continually boiled to evaporate water from the sap as it progresses through the stove. Once the sap reaches the final part of the boiling stove a thermometer and hydrometer are used to measure the temperature and sugar content of the syrup...sap becomes syrup when it reaches 66-67% sugar content at 7.1 degrees F above the temperature of boiling water. Our final and favorite part of the Sugar Shack visit involved a taste test and we all agreed that it was the best syrup we had ever tasted (except Corinne who refused to try it and by the time I carried her back out of the woods I was a bit tired and grumpy myself).

After our trip to the Sugar Shack our guide took us on a tour to see the rest of the farm:

calf

corn snake (it was in a cage)

cows

greenhouse

hen

lamb (she was sooo cute)

rooster

sheep (don't judge her - she is an expectant mother)

Carson on the tractor

Jordan on the tractor

Please note: In addition to refusing to taste the syrup Corinne also refused to get on the tractor, pick a leaf of spinach in the greenhouse, turn the tree hole drill, use wet sandstone to paint the back of her hand, and go in the chicken pen. She did, however, pet the lamb and touch shedded corn snake skins - go figure!