Here are some photos from the “First Tapping” event of the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers Association on the morning of Saturday March 14, 2015. We arrived just before the ceremony at 10:00 am; it was a long drive from Madison to Cadott. Alice in Dairyland did the first tapping, though in fact most of the trees had already been tapped because the sap had started to run the previous week.
They no longer use buckets for collecting the maple sap; instead there is plastic tubing that is connected to a vacuum system which makes things a lot easier. The event was held in Cedric Boettcher’s sugar bush and afterward there was a pancake brunch at his nearby farm.
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- The blue tubing is for the vacuum system that collects the sap
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- Our host, Cedric Boettcher and his grandsons
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- Alice in Dairyland reading the governor’s proclamation
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- Alice doing the first tapping with an auger
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- Alice and some of the dignitaries
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- If you’re at a farm in Wisconsin, there will be cows nearby
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- Cadott is at 45 N latitude, so it is halfway between the Equator and North Pole
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- Historical marker at the site of the original trading post in what is now Cadott
