A year after students in Dr. Linda Fuselier鈥檚 biology class successfully tapped Belknap Campus maple trees for the first time (and later ate the fruits of their labor atop stacks of pancakes), the entire campus community and the public are invited to learn how to tap urban maple trees.
A free Belknap Campus on maple tree tapping will be held 1 p.m. Feb. 13 in the Cultural Center Multipurpose Room and the community garden. Maple syrup expert David Barker, who helped UofL in last year鈥檚 tapping and syrup-making project, will lead the event.
Melissa Michael, who taught the class last year as part of her education PhD, said the goal was to teach students they didn鈥檛 have to be science majors to 鈥渄o science.鈥
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we called in Dave Barker, a man whose job is with computers but has chosen to take on the hobby of tapping maples, to help us tap the trees,鈥 Michael said. 鈥淒ave provided the taps, buckets, drills and all the supplies that we needed to collect the sap. In addition, Dave processed our sap into syrup at his聽. There鈥檚 about 30 to 50 gallons of sap to equal 1 gallon of syrup.鈥
Trees tapped for the special section of Biology 104 produced about a 陆 gallon of syrup, most of which was consumed at a special pancake celebration. During this year鈥檚 workshop, participants will get a chance to taste a bit of what is left of the 2016 crop.
鈥淲e are always looking for ways to use UofL鈥檚 campus as a living laboratory for sustainability,鈥 said Justin Mog, assistant to the provost for sustainability initiatives. 鈥淭apping maple trees here on our campus is another way to teach about food literacy and urban agriculture.鈥
