DIY Maple Tree Tapping

Looking for a Family - Friendly and Socially Distanced Spring Activity?

Try DIY tree tapping in Wayzata's Big Woods! This year, to keep our community safe, there will not be a gathering event for Maple Tree Tapping. Instead, we encourage you to sign up for the DIY experience, which will allow you to do it on your own time (after the sap starts rising) and remain a safe distance apart. 

Between mid-February and March the sap starts rising in the trees and this is the time to tap the Sugar Maples, the most prolific tree in our Big Woods hardwood forest, 14 acres of parkland East of Colonial Square. 

DID YOU KNOW?

• It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.
• Sugar Maple, Black, Red and Silver Maple are the best trees to tap, because they have the highest sugar content, but Birch, Walnut or Boxelder may also be tapped.
• Native Americans taught Minnesota pioneers the skill of making maple syrup, which provided sweetener when sugar was scarce.
• The Native Americans used birch bark containers fixed with fir tree pitch glue the bark together to stop leaking.
• Native Americans knew it was time to move to the “sugar bush” camp (the hardwood maple forests) when they saw the crows return.
• Maple sugaring stops when the sap runs cloudy, the trees start budding, or the frogs start croaking after a thunder and lightning storm.

Sign Up Form

Due to popular demand, Sign Up for this DIY event is now closed. Check back next year for 2022 Tree tapping!

More Information & DIY Guide

Check out this DIY guide to learn more about the Tree Tapping process.