By Hannes Remmert

On Saturday, March 18, Groundwork Somerville, a local nonprofit, hosted the annual Maple Syrup Boil Down Festival. This festival serves every year as the main event of Groundwork’s Maple Syrup Project, an educational program covering Somerville’s urban maple syrup production.

More than 300 people from all over the city came to the highly anticipated festival at the Somerville Community Growing Center to “celebrate the season and also this amazing food which is special for New England,” said first-time organizer Eli Bloch.

The Maple Syrup Project has officially been around since 2001. However, the idea was born back in the 90s when a “high school teacher started it as an education project for his class. They tapped one tree and learned about science, history, and math through the lens of the sugar maple,” said Chris Mancini, the former Executive Director of Groundwork Somerville. In the following years, volunteers continued the project until it was eventually taken over by the nonprofit organization.

Henceforth, every winter the project involves community volunteers and children in the tapping of local sugar maple trees and collecting the sap. On January 29, seven volunteers collected 150 gallons of sap from 6 trees on Tufts Campus. In order to keep it fresh, the sap was frozen at Groundwork’s office and at the Somerville Homeless Coalition, who donated space this year, until the Maple Syrup Boil Down Festival.

In addition to the practical work on Tufts Campus, the project involves an educational component. In the course of and following the sap collection 13 volunteer teachers taught a series of four classes in 18 second-grade classes exposing the students to the life cycles of maple trees and how to make maple syrup. Chris Mancini especially emphasizes showing the production in urban areas. “We spend a lot of time talking about health, nutrition, planting seeds, and understanding where your food comes from. Everyone has seen pictures of horse-drawn buggies, metal buckets, and a wood-fired stove. Here we can do it in the densest city in New England,” he said.

At the festival itself, however, one not only gets to know the different areas of work of the Maple Syrup Project. While reading about the project’s history visitors could buy a t-shirt with maple-themed prints from Groundwork’s youth branch called the Green Team. In addition, pancakes with maple syrup, apple cider, and live music were provided.

Families seemed especially fond of the festival. “I like that I can teach my daughter about where food comes from and that it doesn’t just show up in grocery stores as it is,” said Lauren, a visitor from Arlington. At the arts and craft stand children could learn about the different layers of wood and which trees can be tapped to get syrup. Furthermore, the children were able to try tapping a small trunk before moving on to the next step of maple syrup production: The boiler.

The project’s current boiler was built in 2006 by Somerville High School students and consists of a fireplace on the bottom and a tub on top. When added to the tub the sap evaporates over the heating fire and boils down to the thick liquid we call syrup. At the festival, 50 to 60 gallons of sap were being boiled down to syrup in about 6 to 8 hours. 40 gallons of the watery sap would make one gallon of syrup. Groundwork employees continuously explained the making of maple syrup from the tree to the boiler. Moreover, sap samples from the tub were handed out. Visitors were able to grasp the different stages sap goes through when being boiled down. The rest of the collected sap was sent to a local brewery and can soon be enjoyed as a seasonal beer creation.

The Maple Syrup Boil Down Festival represents one of Somerville’s unique cultural events. With it, the people behind the Maple Syrup Project build up the connection to something that gets lost easily in urban areas: The origin of the food we buy and consume every day.

For more information, visit: www.groundworksomerville.org.