On Saturday, April 17th, the syrup team hosted an open house for current and prospective students and parents. The open house had a great turn-out and we were delighted to share our syrup knowledge and stories from the season with the guests! The first half of the event took place in the woods at our outdoor boiling site. While we waited for everyone to arrive, we talked about the syrup business. We shared information about how our project differed from professional syrup companies (bucket tapping vs. tubes that flow directly from the trees) and how we all got involved in the project. Our guests seemed interested to learn that our team is comprised of students from many different majors within the college.
Once everyone arrived, Tyler gave a brief demonstration on tapping the tree and attaching the hooks and buckets. We gave them a tour of our tapping area and showed them the boiling set up. We were very excited to show off/share our outdoor boiling site. Rachel explained the double-pan system as well as the method of filtration. In addition, we explained the building of the fire pit and how we leveled out the ground to make the boiling as successful as possible.
The second half of the event took place back at Jason Hamilton's lab. Here, we showed the guests how we boil inside with the pots and hot plates. We concluded the open house by treating everyone to our very own syrup with french toast sticks! This was the first time any of us had tried the finish product and it tasted amazing. Over all, the team members and the guests had a great afternoon discussing our project, and I believe we successfully recruited some new members for next year :)
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