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Somerville Maple Syrup Project

Our 2013 season wrapped up successfully, despite a late snowstorm! Thanks to all our supporters who attended the fundraiser brunch, Tapping Day, library workshops, and our “Making Maple Syrup” workshop co-hosted with NOFA Mass–not to mention the Boil Down Festival on March 9th!

Every winter, with our partners at the Somerville Community Growing Center, the Somerville Public Schools, Tufts University, and throughout the community, Groundwork Somerville taps local maple trees and collects the sap.  Simultaneously, Groundwork staff and trained community volunteers teach a four-week arts and science curriculum to second graders at public schools across the city.  The season culminates in a spectacular two-day boil down event held at the Somerville Community Growing Center.  Metal shop students from Somerville High made and maintain the evaporator pan where we boil the sap into syrup.  The syrup is given as thank-you gifts to community partners and sold at the Groundwork Somerville stand at the Union Square Farmers’ Market, the Clarendon Hill Winter Market, and at Sherman Market.

Follow Somerville Maple Syrup news on Twitter using #mmmsyrup hashtag! Our handle on twitter is @gwsomerville.

• Our 2013 season is complete! Check out our accomplishments for this year!
• The Somerville News featured our 2013 syrup season and events, as did the Somerville Beat!
• View Boil Down Festival photos taken by Boston Globe correspondent Samantha Laine and more taken by Boston Volunteers organizer Imanuela Costiner.
• Read a WhyHunger blog feature by Lee Dwyer, our Gardens Coordinator, about this unique urban maple sugaring operation.

*Help us make the Maple Syrup Project even better!*

$12 funds one student’s experience in the Maple Syrup Project
$25 buys a new sap collection bucket
$60 funds a session of the maple education series for a classroom
$250 funds the 4-session maple education series in one classroom
$500 makes you an event sponsor of the Maple Syrup Boil Down Festival

Thanks to Aaron Kagan for writing about the project in the Boston Globe

Check out this Somerville News article previewing the 2011 Season

See the coverage of the 2010 Maple Syrup Project on WBUR Radio and in the Somerville Journal