American college ‘clubs’ together for maple syrup production

An initiative at Bates College in the US state of Maine has brought the campus community together in the name of natural maple syrup.

The Bates Maple Syrup Club takes care of the entire maple syrup production process, using maple trees from the campus and donated from private land in surrounding areas. After extracting the sap from trees, it is filtered into concentrated sap, before being boiled down to syrup.

Bates College’s annual Green Grants programme provided a grant to the club, which invested the money into equipment such as taps (for the extraction process), buckets for sap collection and an evaporator.

Tom Twist, the institution’s Assistant Director of Sustainability, said that the programme is an excellent learning opportunity for students. He explained:

“What’s so unique about the Green Grants program is that it puts the stewardship of campus sustainability in the hands of the students themselves. Having the students shepherd a project through this entire arc transforms not only the campus, but the student as well.”

Any club member who worked on production and helped with the evaporator didn’t go home empty-handed, being given syrup to take home from the final batch. Jars also found their way to the college’s Facility Services team, who kept the sweetener for their coffee breaks.

Bates College opened in 1855. It had the distinction of being the first co-ed college in the region of New England; made up of the states of Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.