Backyard Maple Syrup Production Workshop to be held at Dixon Springs

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS - Are you interested in learning about making your own maple syrup? If so, come to the sixth annual Backyard Maple Syrup Production Workshop on Feb. 19 at 10 a.m. 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 also be tapped to make this tasty syrup.

This all-outdoor 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 demonstrate a syrup evaporator and an optional tour of a sugarbush forest, managed for maple syrup production and utilizing a pipeline system of sap collection.

The University of Illinois Extension will provide kids with an indoor maple syrup program. Masks will be required indoors.

The workshop will be held on Saturday, Feb. 19, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Dixon Springs Agricultural Center, located at 354 State Highway 145 N, Simpson.

This program is free and open to the public.

Register by calling the Ag Center at (618) 695-3383 or emailing cwevans@illinois.edu by Feb. 18.