Tasting Pure Maple Sugar at Outdoor, Winter Festival

Even though there was a fresh blanket of snow on area trees Saturday morning, Rockwoods Reservation's Maple Sugar Festival volunteers and team members quickly prepared for the opening of the annual event at 10 a.m. 

Kevin McCarthy, Missouri Department of Conservation's naturalist program supervisor at Rockwoods Reservation in Wildwood, said the public waited a while before venturing out in the morning, due to the winter weather and cold temperatures.  This gave McCarthy and his team more time to prepare the roadways, sidewalks and venues for the day's crowds.

The Maple Sugar Festival is always held on the first Saturday of February.  This time of year is ideal for the tree sap to be flowing because of the temperature differences between the nighttime and daytime, said McCarthy.

Volunteers, staff members and McCarthy began to prepare for the February event a few months ago by tapping into sugar maple trees and setting up the spouts and containers used to capture the tree sap.  To tap a tree, a 1 1/2-inch or 2-inch hole is created.  A spout is inserted into the hole, and a bag or bucket is attached to the spout.  Over the next few days, sap from the sugar maple tree will run down the spout and into the container.

This sugar maple sap is used at several venues during the Maple Sugar Festival, including the Sugar-on-Snow area, kettle corn area, and the Pancakes Taste Test at the pavilion.

The Visitor Center, showing the "Maple Sugar" movie, was a welcome and warm break from the frosty outside temperatures and snow.

"The whole point of the festival is for people to connect with nature, and start tapping their own maple trees," said McCarthy.