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>> Paul Rogovitch: Good

afternoon and welcome
to History Sandwiched In.

And although it's mid-winter
right now, it's not going to be

long before at least the days
will be getting warmer and that

means maple sugar time.
Today's speaker has come from

the MacKenzie Center up near
Poynette.

It's a Department of Natural
Resources education center.

It's huge and has so many
things.

If you haven't visited it,
you really should, you really

should.
Especially around maple sugar

time, and she'll tell you when
that is.

Our speaker is Ruth Ann Lee.
Please, Ruth Ann,

let's all welcome her
to History Sandwiched In.

Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]

>> Ruth Ann Lee: Thank you.
Today I'm honored to be here,

and all of you want to learn
a little bit more about maple

sugar.
At the MacKenzie Center,

we take our maple syrup pretty
seriously, and it's one of

our biggest education programs.
But let me tell you a little bit

about the MacKenzie Center if
you're not familiar with it.

How many of you have ever been
there before?

Beautiful.
We're only about 25 miles north

of Madison.
Take highway 51 straight up, and

you'll run right into Poynette.
Most people associate us with

the state game farm and the
pheasants.

That's because that property is
our neighbor.

But the MacKenzie Center is an
environmental education center,

and we host lots and lots of
students every year for outdoor

field trips and hands-on field
trips.

We're 250 acres.
We have live animals.

You might often hear us in the
news with our bobcats or our

wolves or our mountain lions.
We have a nice live wildlife

exhibit.
We have themed museums, hiking

trails, different habitats on
property for people to explore

and the students to explore.
A pond.

An arboretum.
We have a hundred different

species of trees that are all
GPS located that you can go out

and learn to identify.
Our sugar bush, very important,

picnic areas, a nice big lodge
and dormitories.

We actually can sleep 82 people
on any given night.

In 2010 we reached just over
7600 kids, through a variety of

programming.
They come for day field trips

with their teachers.
We may not see them.

Sometimes they're self-guided,
other times they have a lot of

staff or volunteer help.
They come for our maple program

just in the month of March.
We have day camp programs.

We have overnight programs,
those are those 82 beds where

they spend the night with us,
and the kids spend the night

with their teachers and
chaperones and then they kind of

wiggle in those traditional
campfire and night hikes into

their field trips.
And then we do have a variety of

summer camp programming as well.
But today I'm going to focus on

maple syrup.
Out of that 7600 kids, about

1500 of them were just for
maple, in the month of March.

So it's a pretty intense program
for us.

This is a picture of our sugar
bush.

Harley MacKenzie, for whom the
center is named after, loved

trees, particularly the sugar
maple.

And so we're blessed with his
love all these years later with

many sugar maple trees to tap.
The students arrive.

They're greeted by volunteers.
They get into their small

groups, and we really do like
them in small groups because

it's hands-on for these kids.
This is not lecture for them.

This is hands-on, outside.
They're learning all about, a

little bit about MacKenzie but
they're also learning about why

trees are important, why the
forest is important, products

like fire wood and lumber and
that trees give us oxygen, that

trees can actually give us food,
and usually they'll catch on to

nuts and berries and things like
that and apples and oranges.

And we try to get them to think
about the sap that's also

flowing in those trees.
What's neat about this is we

talk about the signs of spring.
And Paul mentioned earlier in

the introduction that we're
waiting for our days to get

warmer.
But for maple syrup to be

successful we need warm days and
very cold nights.

So we need to get the kids to
think about that.

Springtime, what does that mean?
Puddles are melting but they

freeze again over night.
We get them to think about, I'll

go back just a second, about
tree identification.

They're at the MacKenzie Center
and we're going to tap sugar

maple trees, well most often
they'll know the difference

between a maple and an oak, but
in March the leaves aren't on

the trees.
So we need to go a step further

and do a little winter
identification with them.

And we'll talk about the
branches on the trees.

Whether they have alternate or
opposite branching.

And a sugar maple tree in
particular, does anybody know

what kind of branching they
might have?

Nobody?
Okay.

Opposite.
So if you think my body is the

trunk and my arms as branches,
the branches are opposite from

each other.
Versus alternate where you might

be like this.
So we get the kids to do a

little dance out in the sugar
bush.

This is a food factory.
We like to stress that trees are

food.
They make their own food.

And we'll get them to experience
and kind of investigate what

that means.
What the structure of the tree

is.
There's a wood cookie here at

the bottom of the tree.
It's simply a cross section of a

tree.
So we'll talk about the xylem

and the phloem, those veins in
the trees that are carrying the

sap from the roots all the way
up to the buds much like the

veins in your body carrying your
blood.

We talk about how the bark
protects the tree.

And then they'll usually get to
the fact that there's going to

be leaves on that tree.
And leaves are usually green.

And green leaves make food
because of the chlorophyll and

the process of photosynthesis.
And so the students will

investigate that a little bit.
And this is really important to

us because we not only want them
to learn about maple sugar and

maple sap but we also need them
to know how it was created.

So they're experiencing it.
We've got these little pieces

that fit inside the food factory
that represent the sunlight and

the chlorophyll needs.
The water, carbon dioxide, all

those things that the tree
needs.

Oops, I'm going a little fast
here.

The kids will experience then
that through that process of

photosynthesis the tree is
making sugar and water and

oxygen.
And it's that sugar that they're

going to learn about how to
collect.

So you collect it.
You can't just cut the tree

down.
We need to create some sort of

method to harvest the sap in
that tree.

In this case the students here
are making what's called a

spile.
And they're made from small

elderberry branches that have a
very soft pith or center core.

And they'll actually clean them
out and make their own little

wooden spile, much like people
may have done a hundred years

ago.
So hands-on again.

Real successful.
They love doing this.

We'll share with them a story or
a legend, how maple sap may or

may not have been discovered.
And there's a story about a

Native American chief who, at
the end of his day of hunting

and gathering, came home and put
his hatchet, just kind of hit it

right in the tree.
Went about his business.

Rested for the evening.
When he got up in the morning,

he took his hatchet and we went
back out and he was hunting and

gathering for his family.
While it was a nice warm march

day where it was above freezing
during the day, and his wife had

left all her vessels in her
basket at the base of that tree

and that tree gave them water
and filled the baskets.

Well she thought it was a really
nice option to use the water in

those baskets instead of
traveling all the way down to

the crick to gather water to
make her meal.

And so she cooked their venison
and their meat in that water

that the tree gave them that
day.

And they realized how sweet and
how delicious it was.

And so they continued to try to
collect it from the trees, the

water from the trees.
Had they known it was sugar?

I don't know.
Is the story true?

I don't know either.
We call it a legend.

But it's one idea of how to do
it.

But again, no hatchets for the
children.

They're making spiles to collect
it.

They're cleaning out.
Then we've got to find a tree.

We've already told them about
opposite branching.

We told them about how maple
trees have brown bark and brown

buds this time of year.
And they're up in our sugar

bush.
And they're not allowed, if

you'll notice to the left
there's a tree that's already

wrapped with a ribbon, sometimes
we put ribbons around a pine

tree just to throw them off, but
they've got to find their tree

because we're going to actually
let the kids tap the tree.

So no hatchets.
We do use a brace and a bit, and

we let the children all take
turns with the drill.

No wooden spiles today but we
would do a metal spile with a

hook.
And so our teacher here is

actually gently tapping it in.
We talk to the kids about where

to tap it on the tree, whether
it's way down low or way up high

or usually about three or four
feet off the ground is

appropriate.
Makes it easy to collect.

Will the tree give us sap way up
high?

Probably.
But when that bucket is super

full it's going to be really
hard to lift it off without

spilling.
On a really nice warm day, the

tree will start dripping before
we even have the bucket hung.

And it's always interesting to
get a sample.

Get it on your finger and taste
what it's like.

And most kids are expecting
syrup.

It's quite interesting.
You ask them what does it taste

like and they'll say water.
Well, what's interesting about

maple sap is on a good tree only
about 3% to 5% of that sap is

going to be sugar, the rest is
all water.

By the time you put it on your
pancakes it's usually about 66%

sugar.
So there's a big deference

between what comes out of the
tree as sap and what you put on

your pancakes for syrup.
Here's some girls checking out

how much is in the buckets.
On any given season we will

probably tap well over a hundred
trees, and 90% of those trees

were tapped in small groups by
students.

There's only a few that the
volunteers are tapping without a

group of students.
So what we also do with our

maple program once they've had
all this hands-on, they go visit

our Che-po-ta-kay.
And the Che-po-ta-kay is a home,

a Native American home.
And in this case we have a

replica.
And it's covered in a tarp but

inside is something special.
This is where our maple program

reaches a different level.
These students are learning

about a little bit of history.
How Native Americans would

travel from their winter home to
their springtime home and why

they would do that.
Now Native Americans weren't

making syrup.
They had no way to gauge

percentages in their sap and in
their syrup, they were making

sugar.
Inside the house we decorate it

with hides and pelts and
different artifacts.

There's an interpreter in here.
This particular educator is

sharing his knowledge with the
students about how grandmother

ran the house.
It wasn't mom or dad, it would

have been grandma.
And the jobs you may or may not

have had as a young child at
this particular time in history.

They'll move on to a different
station.

We call this our hollow log
station.

How did Native Americans get
their sap from 3% from the tree

into sugar which is beyond 66%?
Well, they got very creative and

they'd hollow out logs and they
would have different vessels

such as these.
They'd take hot rocks that

they'd heat up in a campfire,
and this hollow log in our

demonstration purposes is filled
with water.

History would tell us it would
be filled with sap.

You drop those hot rocks into
that sap and you're evaporating.

What is all that steam?
Well it's water.

So it's concentrating the sap
through evaporation.

Another station we take the
students to is early pioneers.

How did the pioneers, they
learned a lot from the Native

Americans.
They could barter and trade for

syrup and for sap and for sugar.
But they brought tools with

them, tools the Native Americans
didn't have.

They had iron.
So we have our iron kettles.

We talk about tapping the trees
and bringing different tools

with you.
They may have modified the spile

a little bit.
In this case the spile is quite

long, it's probably a good 12 to
18 inches compared to that

little metal one we tapped in
the tree.

While they didn't necessarily
have a method to hang a bucket

from the spile, they'd set it at
the base of the tree so you

needed a longer spile so you
that you didn't waste any of

those drops, that it landed
right in the bucket that you

placed there.
So we're talking about

concentrating that sap, again
through evaporation.

A hot fire is cooking that sap.
You constantly needed to use

that paddle to stir it up so
that it wouldn't scorch on the

bottom of those iron kettles.
It would get a little darker,

you'd move it to the next
kettle, next kettle until you

got a little bit less and a
little bit less.

Kids want to do this at home.
So sometimes we'll show them an

outdoor cooker.
I don't know if any of you know

people that produce maple syrup
at home but traditionally you

don't do the whole process from
beginning to end in your

kitchen.
You think about boiling water

for noodles and things like that
and all the condensation and the

steam that's in your kitchen.
Now can you imagine for doing

that for 10-12 hours straight.
It produces a lot of humidity in

your home, and if you have
wallpaper and things like that

it's not usually a good idea.
You can start the process

outside.
This is a simple little brick

outdoor cooker with a flat pan
on the fireplace.

We're very fortunate at
MacKenzie because we have

buildings dedicated just for our
maple syrup program.

These are students that are near
our cook shack.

And here they're looking at the
a demonstration of all the many

different kinds of spiles.
Some of it is technology

improving from wooden to metal
to plastic.

Sometimes it's simply just your
preference.

All the Wisconsin maple
products.

We have lots of local maple
products here in Wisconsin.

A weather station just
reaffirming to the students that

you can't do this any other time
of year.

You need to remind them you need
springtime.

You need warm spring days but
you also need those cold spring

nights.
And a thermograph that measures

the temperatures helps us
monitor some of those things.

In our cook shack we have a
special back room that holds our

sap tank.
There's a hundred gallon tank in

there.
So all the sap that's collected

from the trees that the students
just tapped.

Some of it gets refrigerated,
some of it goes directly into

that silver sap tank.
Here they're looking at a

demonstration of milk jugs.
To put it into perspective on

how much time it takes in
perspective, if our maple tree

has 5% sugar, it would take us
17 gallons of sap to make one

gallon of syrup.
So we would have to collect that

many milk jugs full of sap just
to get on milk jug of pancake

syrup.
At 4% it's 21 and at 3% it's 28.

And trees on average are closer
to three than they are to five

so we are collecting a lot of
sap to make just a little bit of

syrup, and that's often why pure
maple syrup is more expensive.

It's very time consuming to
produce.

So this displays on the outside
of our cook shack for our

students.
Then they get to enter the

shack.
Here we have a volunteer

educator explaining what's going
on in this building in this part

of the process.
Our technology is from the Civil

War era.
Here we have an arch stove with

a flat pan.
And the pan is actually the top

of the stove.
If you were to remove that pan,

you'd see the flames.
Very hot fire.

In this case that sap tank I
showed you in a previous slide

has a little tube that goes
through the wall because it is

constantly draining into this
flat pan so that there's always

about an inch to an inch and a
half in that pan.

And if you were to look at, it's
at a little roaring boil.

All these little bubbles.
And they stir it up, they just

don't want it to scorch.
It takes them probably 10 to 12

hours to cook down that hundred
gallon tank full of sap.

So we have volunteers that
arrive quite early in the

morning.
On a cold day this is a favorite

spot for the kids.
We have some very interesting

engineers in our volunteer crew.
That contraption that's on the

top of the flat pan evaporator
you'll see that this is the tube

that comes out, the sap tank is
on the opposite side of the

wall.
What they're trying to do is

preheat the sap a little bit
through those coils before it

enters right in.
And I think it took off an hour

or two of production time at the
end of the day.

Some students in the sugar
house.

Inside our finishing house we
like to share with them all the

different maple products.
We'll quiz them.

We'll pick up this bottle of
Aunt Jemima, and we'll ask one

of the students to read the back
and read the ingredients.

What do you think is in this
particular pancake syrup?

>> Corn syrup.
>> Corn syrup.

Nowhere in the ingredients list
will it say maple.

And for a product to have pure
maple syrup in it, it has to say

it on the front of the label.
We use a refractometer and this

is a diagram of it.
It's a small tool that you put a

drop of sap on, and you measure
how the light reflects through

that sap and it will tell you
how much sugar is in it.

So that flat pan, they're
cooking and they're cooking and

they're cooking all day, they
take it off that hot fire at

about 64%.
Sometimes it moves really quick

on them.
Then they'll take it inside our

finishing house where on a
stove, on a gas stove, they'll

get it just to the very end.
And their goal is 66% bricks or

66% sugar.
If you go past it, you're going

to get like a maple candy or
maple actually crumb sugar.

It almost looks like brown
sugar.

So the volunteers are constantly
measuring where it is in the

process.
It gets filtered several

different times, and then it
gets jarred and bundled up.

Cooled and labeled.
And the students then do enjoy a

campfire outside where they kind
of have a review.

They get to sample some pure
maple syrup, see what they've

learned on their field trip.
We've got some neat props.

This particular wood cookie that
the volunteer has here has been

a tree that's been tapped
before.

So they're showing some scars on
that particular tree and

stressing to them that the tree
had healed much like a scab on

your body, the tree healed and
continued to grow.

We challenge them a little bit,
talking again about pioneer life

and collecting and the tools you
may have had to do that and how

much work and how time consuming
and labor intensive this process

can be.
But it got you outside and

everybody loved it.
And then, of course, the sample.

And I have samples to share with
you today as well.

Now what make this is program
successful at MacKenzie is last

year we had over 68 volunteers
that served over 3,000 hours in

the month of March.
So it reached 1500 students,

they collected just over 1200
gallons of sap and produced

just over 40 gallons of syrup.
It's a lot of time and a lot of

effort on them, but our
volunteers often tell us that

it's addicting.
That once they get settled, once

they find their niche in the
program, they wait for it every

year.
So we're pretty excited about

it.
We're already in the midst of

planning for this spring.
Our teachers are gearing up.

They plan all their field trips
next week.

So hopefully we'll have our
spring field trip calendar

filled.
And we do quite well.

We have a lot of fun with it.
It does mean that spring is

coming.
All right.

Samples, would you like to enjoy
some samples or take some

questions?
[APPLAUSE]