Backyard Maple Syrup Production Workshop

Are you interested in learning about making your own maple syrup?  If so, come to the fifth annual Backyard Maple Syrup Production Workshop at the Dixon Springs Agricultural Center.  Maple sap collection and syrup production is easy, relatively inexpensive to start, and is a great late winter project that can be fun for the entire family.  Sugar maples, the species typically thought of for sap collection, are abundant in southern Illinois but other species of maple can be tapped to make this tasty syrup. 

The program will cover tree identification, equipment needs, tree tapping, sap collection, boiling, and finishing maple syrup.  Participants will see firsthand the processes involved in making maple syrup.  We will have a demonstration of a syrup evaporator and an optional tour of a sugarbush forest, managed for maple syrup production and utilizing a pipeline system of sap collection.  New this year is taste-testing maple syrup produced right here at Dixon Springs!

University of Illinois Extension will provide a maple syrup program for kids.

The workshop will be held on Saturday, February 1, 2020 from 10am-12pm at the Dixon Springs Agricultural Center, located at 354 State Highway 145 N, Simpson, IL  62985.  This program is free and open to the public. 

Register by calling the Ag Center at 618-695-2441 by January 30th

If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in this program, please contact Dixon Springs at 618-695-3383.

  For more information, please contact:

Chris Evans -  cwevans@illinois.edu , 618-695-3383