Volunteers are hard at work, but it's a sweet job: tapping sap to make pure Michigan maple syrup.
It really is time to tap the sap. Syrup lovers in Vermontville call this past weekend perfect, warm temperatures at night meant sap wouldn't stop flowing.
"With the day temperatures being in the 50s and the nights not cooling down below 30," says MaryAnn Hayes, "we should have a very busy weekend because the trees will continuously produce sap."
It's been a good year too. The Eaton County volunteers like Hayes who run Maple Manor say 40 degrees during the day, and freezing temperatures at night make for a great batch of syrup. This winter, they've gotten a lot of that.
"A little sunshine and wind never hurt," says Hayes, "those really seem to make the trees run better, so this year so far so good, this weekend perfect."
It's all to prepare for what they call Michigan's original maple syrup festival.
"We sell the syrup during our Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival," says Hayes.
It's sweet either way, the team boils all the water from the sap, and what's left is pure Michigan maple syrup.
If you want to buy syrup, you can visit Maple Manor in downtown Vermontville at the corner of Main and Main Streets, or go to the festival the last full weekend of April. Volunteers say all syrup proceeds at the festival go to the community.
