St. John’s Arboretum provides syrup through sustainable practices
This is the opinion of Ryan Imm.
Since 1942, sugar maple tapping has sprouted a sweet business for monks and students alike which has fostered an environmental tradition that is here to stay—you could say we stuck with it!
Just another amazing function of the beautiful St. John’s Arboretum, tapping our own maple syrup is not only resourceful but also a sustainable practice that benefits our taste buds as well as our connection to the outdoors. While this benefits those who put in the hard work of producing the syrup and especially for those who just reap the product, it raises the question: how is our syrup made?
First comes the identification of the tree that produces the sap: the sugar maple. While there are specific characteristics that make identifying these trees easier, utilizing the services of the OutdoorU and their student naturalists is probably much easier.
Second is tapping the trees. Once you have found your tree, there are two factors that affect how and when to tap the sugar maples: the size of the tree and temperature. Standard practice requires a minimum of 12 inches in diameter to place one tap and 18 inches in diameter to place two taps.
Temperature also places a crucial role in sap production because, under ideal conditions, sap will flow when it is above freezing during the daytime hours and stop when it is below freezing during the nighttime hours, yet as we are all aware, Minnesota weather doesn’t always have this in store! Regardless, March and April are usually the prime months for sap flow and collection in our region.
Third is sap collection and cooking. To best prevent spoilage, collection within one or two days is recommended, yet when there are upwards of 1,500 taps (as there are this year) it makes it difficult to get to every tree within that timeframe.
Once collected in barrels, the sap is transported to the sugar shack to be cooked. On average, it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup—that’s a big ratio!
Once perfected into a syrup, the volunteers who helped are paid in sugary goodness, and the rest of the product is entered into drawings as prizes or given out on a voluntary basis. No one can buy St. John’s maple syrup; that’s what makes it even more special!
After the sugar shortage during World War II that sparked the need to tap into our precious, sweet resource here at SJU, education has been at the forefront of this almost century-long tradition. Field trips and guided hikes are led by student naturalists and faculty alike to spread awareness of the outdoors to children who may not get this opportunity elsewhere.
Learning about natural resources, Indigenous customs and getting a hands-on experience with nature revitalizes our Benedictine values of community, hospitality and stewardship as we open our arboretum to those who can benefit from it the most.
If you haven’t had the chance to try the sweet, delightful jewel of St. John’s, I suggest you start your search!