Check out the video below to see Piedmont Picnic Project tap their first maple tree here in Raleigh! This is another part of our series on Feasting in Times of Winter Scarcity, as sap is another food resource that is in-season and abundant in late winter when not much else is growing.
Our co-founder, Amanda, grew up helping her dad make maple syrup, so she is channeling his expertise in the video below. She remembers emptying buckets of sap before getting on the bus in the mornings and having it slosh all over her. Needless to say, she was very popular at school. Their family has been tapping maples and making syrup for almost 40 years. She remembers following her dad around when he would drill the trees with a manual, non-electric drill. It was her job to use a small stick to clean out the hole to make sure it was free of wood shavings before the spile was put in (a step she forgets to mention in the video, so take note!).
Adjusting the tapping to southern winters has been a challenge, but the sap seems to be flowing pretty good at this time of year (about a month before the trees would have been tapped in northeast Ohio where she grew up).
Stay tuned for updates on our sap-collecting and syrup-making endeavors!
*style=spile ; )
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