Birds in This Story
Scarlet Tanager
Latin: Piranga olivacea
The sugarbush at the Green Mountain Audubon Center in Huntington is usually bustling with activity from the moment the first maple tree gets tapped in late February through our annual Sugar on Snow Parties in late March. We love to share the magic of the maple sugaring season with our Audubon community every year. Since we can’t do that in person this year, we made a series of short videos for you all about the process of Bird-Friendly Maple Sugaring: tapping a tree, gathering sap, boiling sap in the sugarhouse, and canning, grading and tasting the syrup! We’ve also added bonus videos about searching for our Golden Tap, a video about how our Bird-Friendly Maple Project makes a sugarbush good habitat for birds, and a sweet tutorial on how you can make Sugar on Snow at home on your kitchen stove.
We miss having you all out at the Audubon Center for Sugar on Snow parties, but we know you’ll enjoy this fun series on Maple sugaring.
The trails at the Green Mountain Audubon Center are still open from dawn until dusk daily. Come on out (keeping your social distance) and search for the Golden Tap.
Good luck and have fun!
Step 1: Tapping a Maple Tree The first step in the maple syrup process is to tap the tree! Be sure to visit our Bird-Friendly sugarbush and see all 500+ trees we tapped this year!
Step 2: Gathering the Sap. Once our trees are tapped we wait for those warm days to gather the flowing sap. Come along for the ride!
Step 3 and 4: Boiling and Canning. After a long day of gathering all the sap it’s time to boil it down to get our sweet maple syrup! Watch how the maple magic happens!
Step 5: Grading and The Taste Test. Every batch of maple syrup we make gets its own grade based on the color of the syrup. Each grade of syrup has its own unique taste. Watch this video to see how we do that.
The Golden Tap. Watch this video to learn about one way you can get outside by finding our Golden Tap! If you find it, be sure to take a picture and tag us!
Sugar on Snow!! Learn how to make the sweetest treat from Audubon’s Bird-Friendly sugarbush.
Learn from Steve Hagenbuch to find out what makes a sugarbush Bird-Friendly - like ours at the Green Mountain Audubon Center.
Audubon Vermont's Bird-Friendly Maple Project is a collaborative effort to integrate bird conservation with Vermont's maple syrup industry.
