It's Maple Sugaring Days at Naper Settlement
Naper Settlement visitors this weekend will see the easy part of making maple syrup as well as getting a look at the job's tougher aspects.
During Maple Sugaring Days, an annual pre-spring rite at the 19th-century museum village, the entire process is on display.
It begins with tapping maple trees for sap.
"It's very easy to do," said Joseph Coleman, a museum educator.
Coleman says he and other educators will demonstrate using hand-powered drills and hammers to access the sap rising through the interior of trees. Once a hole is made, a spout is inserted to allow the sap to drip into a bucket below the spout.
"You can get about 150 drops of sap a minute," he said.
That rate, though, is influenced by the winter's weather and recent temperature patterns.
"Sap flows best when it's around freezing at night and in the 40s and 50s during the day," Coleman said. If it's been colder, "it'll still come out if the sap isn't frozen in the tree."
The next step is boiling down 40 gallons of sap into a single gallon of syrup -- and it takes hours.
That's why, when visitors arrive Saturday and Sunday, several trees already will have been tapped and the previously collected sap will be simmering over a campfire behind the fort, museum educator Rachel Christian said.
The maple syrup-making business was never overwhelmingly profitable in the Naperville area, Christian said.
"There were some people who tried to start businesses, but they were not very productive," she said.
In the 1800s, syrup shipped from either New England or Canada was more likely to grace local breakfast tables than locally produced syrup, she said.
Maple Sugaring Days visitors not only will get to witness maple syrup in the making, she said, but also will get to taste it, too. And each visitor will receive a recipe book featuring maple syrup dishes.
In addition, Christian said, the museum store will offer maple syrup treats for sale.
If you go
What: Maple Sugaring Days
Where: Naper Settlement, 523 S. Webster St., Naperville
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $8 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5.50 for youth
Info: (630) 420-6010 or napersettlement.museum