Annual Maple Syrup Festival Educates Community [VIDEO]

COLLEGEVILLE -- Have you ever wondered how something as abundant as tree sap is turned into the delicious treat we know as maple syrup? People who visited the annual Maple Syrup Festival at St. John’s University on Saturday got to learn exactly that.

Environmental Education Coordinator Sarah Gainey says the event is geared toward sharing knowledge with the community.

Each year we kinda throw open our doors and invite the public to come out and learn about how to make maple syrup.

Maple syrup has been made at St. John’s since 1942, but the festival started in the early 2000s.

Gainey says visitors can learn about the syrup-making process from start to finish.

You can go see a tapping demonstration, so how we put that tap in the tree. You can go practice collecting sap, so taking some buckets out into the woods and doing that. We’re doing tours of the sugar shack so you can actually see the evaporator in action and see the syrup cooking.

In addition there was a lumberjack station, bonfire, student presentations, and even an opportunity to sample the fresh syrup over ice cream.