Somerville Maple Syrup Project
Thanks to all who made the 2011 syruping season a smashing success!
Every winter, with our partners at the Community Growing Center, the Somerville Public Schools, and Tufts University, Groundwork Somerville taps local maple trees and collect the sap. Simultaneously, GWS staff and community volunteers teach a four-week arts and science curriculum to second graders at several public schools. The season culminates with a spectacular two-day boil-down event held at the Somerville Community Growing Center. Metal shop students from Somerville High made the evaporator pan and maintain all the equipment each year. The syrup is given as thank-you gifts to community partners and sold at the GWS stand at the Union Square Farmers’ Market.
Announcement: T-shirt Contest…We hope you got a chance to see this year’s wonderful Maple Syrup Project T-Shirts (still available for sale, $12). Next year, we will have a brand new shirt with new art from community program participants. You are invited to submit art for the 2012 shirt! Please send 8.5″x11″ white paper with black ink or marker drawings* to Groundwork Somerville c/o Tai Dinnan; 21 Properzi Way, Suite O; Somerville, MA; 02143. Write your name and phone number on the back of the paper with pencil. We will select 3-4 of the illustrations that best portray the Somerville Maple Syrup Project and combine them onto next year’s shirt. Trees, tools, buckets, boilers, and kids having fun would all make great images. (*black on white will ensure high quality scans, ink and T will be colorful again – don’t worry!)
We were excited to offer our maple education sessions at the main branch library via four free Saturday workshops in 2011. Thanks for the Friends of the Somerville Public Library for supporting this project. Read about it in the Somerville Journal.
Thanks to Aaron Kagan for writing about the project in the Boston Globe
Check out this Somerville News article previewing the 2011 Season
See the coverage of the 2010 Maple Syrup Project on WBUR Radio and in the Somerville Journal
