At Muscoot Farm you can experience farm animals, agriculture, wildlife, and history in a family-friendly atmosphere. Once a working dairy farm, Muscoot Farm is now a Westchester County park open to the public 362 days of the year.
Please note at this time that the buildings at Muscoot Farm are closed. However the parking lot, hiking trails, and grounds remain open from 10am-4pm daily. For additional information on Muscoot and other Westchester County facilities please visit westchestergov.com.
Tapping the Trees
Saturday, Feb. 6, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Thirty-minute sessions; one family at a time. Fee: $20.
Maple Sugaring
Saturdays and Sundays
Beginning Sunday, Feb. 7 through March 21 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Thirty-minute sessions; one family at a time. Fee: $20.
Winter Skills Camp
Monday, Feb. 15 - Friday, Feb. 19, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m
For students in grades four through six; eight participants. Fee: $300.
What’s up with that Silver Bucket?
It's February at Muscoot Farm and silver buckets are appearing hanging from the trees. What are they for? Are they weird garbage pails? Strange Squirrel houses? No! They are sap buckets and they are collecting sap to be made into maple syrup!
So How Does this Work?
During the Summer, the leaves of Maple trees make sugar. Some of it is stored in their roots as starch and kept through the Winter. In Spring, the warmer temperatures signal the trees to turn the stored starch back into sugar. As the tree mixes ground water with the sugar, sap is created. This sap is what syrup is made from- but the sap is NOT the caramel color of syrup, it is crystal clear and looks like water!
In February, Farmers drill holes into the trunks of Maple tress about two to four feet off the ground. They will slant the hole upward slightly so that sap can run out, and then gently tap a spile into the hole. They will then hang the bucket onto the spile to collect the sap.
A weather pattern of freezing and thawing temperatures (below freezing at night and 40-45 degrees during the day) will build up pressure within the trees causing the sap to flow from the tap-holes. The sap flows into the buckets which can get filled pretty quickly. Sap from buckets must be gathered by hand and dumped into a gathering tank in the sugarhouse which will have something called an evaporator.
An evaporator is where the boiling takes place. It is a stainless steel pan that sits on top of a firebox, where wood creates an intense fire. As the water in the sap evaporates, the sap thickens and as the sugar caramelizes it looks like hundreds of golden bubbles in the front pan. When the thermometer in the pan reaches 219 degrees the syrup is ready to draw off. The evaporation process sends clouds of sweet maple scented steam billowing from the sugarhouse. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup! A typical sugaring season lasts 4 to 6 weeks.
