Students make "SAC Gold" on campus

It's a sure sign of spring when you spot sap buckets on the campus's maple trees.
 
Students and staff returned from the long weekend to find buckets attached to the maples lining the Quad and at Willow Farm. It was certainly a happy sighting!
 
This week, Middle School students supervised by Ms. O'Hare and Mr. Murray continued to tap trees and put up more buckets to collect sap.
 
The buckets are installed by drilling a small hole in the tree where a spout is inserted. The sap is then collected in the buckets as it drips out of the tree. From there, it is transported to Willow Farm, where it is boiled on our two-burner evaporator.
 
As the sap boils, the water is removed, the sugar becomes concentrated, and it gets finished in the 30-litre pot. It takes about 40 litres of sap to make one litre of syrup!
 
Mr. Murray made syrup last year during the early days of the School's lockdown as a pilot program. He lives on campus and was assisted in the process by his son Hugh '26.
 
The first batch of syrup, being referred to as "SAC Gold," was ready on Wednesday, and there is plenty more to come! Middle School students made pancakes to eat with the fresh maple syrup and enjoyed them around a fire to finish off this Avant-Garde Wednesday initiative.
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