The Urban Sugaring Project is revamped and ready to return to Guelph next month after a one-year hiatus.
Now run by the Guelph Tool Library, the five-year-old project will now tap over 150 trees, offer more kits and loan participants tools such as measuring devices to take home.
“One of the messages we have in the Guelph Tool Library is we have all these great resources that we don’t often take advantage of and the reason we may do that is we don’t necessarily have the tools of the knowledge,” said John Dennis, project coordinator of the Urban Sugaring Project.
He said the idea that initiated the project was to be able to share resources together as a community.
“Somebody pointed out to me that in the City of Guelph, there’s probably as many as 3,000 maple trees and maybe a handful are tapped,” said Dennis.
The project encourages tree owners to work together to create maple syrup. Participants rent a kit which includes a bucket, tree tap, and instructions for $10 along with a $10 deposit. Kits are also available at the pre-launch sign up for Tool Library members.
Distribution of the kits will occur on Feb. 1 at the free pancake breakfast at the Church of the Apostles at 86 Glasgow St. from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Volunteers will be available to answer questions about tapping trees and the project.
Participants then return the collected sap to a central location. The sap is pooled, boiled down and redistributed back to the participants at the Syrup in the City festival at John McCrae on March 28.
Participants earn a share of the finished syrup based on how much sap they contributed.
“If people want pancakes and they want to learn more about it and they can’t make it on Feb. 1, then certainly I would like them to come to Syrup in the City at John McCrae public on March. 28.," said Dennis.
The breakfast will include fresh pancakes, including gluten-free and vegan options, and syrup made from the trees at John McCrae Public School last year.
“All of this is weather dependent,” said Dennis.
“What has to happen is the days have to be above zero, nights below zero, and it also has to do with the position of the sun. Trees pick up on all this information and they know.”
Dennis said when the tree gets ready to start a new season to grow its leaves, it has a reservoir of energy that reaches up and stems out to the branches.
“I describe sap as an energy drink for trees,” said Dennis adding that tapping a tree for the purpose of creating maple syrup takes a very small percentage of sap from the tree and doesn’t disturb it.
“People really like the opportunity to be able to tap the trees,” said Dennis.
“It’s a fun community event.”
