Local Local Food

The neighborhood farm is emerging… the Wine Punk taps our maple trees

Tapped silver maple tree

The second tapped silver maple

Our neighbor and collaborator – working with Block by Block Cooperation to increase ultra-local food production in our hood – the Wine Punk (aka Sam Vandegrift), tapped the two silver maple trees in our (Let’s Re-Make) front yard this week as well as many other trees in the neighborhood. Sam identified over 30 trees in a 3-block area to tap and collect the sap from. It is really amazing to see all the trees with gallon milk jugs hanging off of antique taps. The sap wasn’t what I expected. It was colorless and had no flavor. It flowed as soon as a hole was made in the tree.  Sam’s efforts have created a bit of a buzz among our neighbors, which is exactly what we wanted to happen.

As the sap is being collected, he will boil it down to make maple syrup. We are currently planning a pancake breakfast in Sam’s driveway once the weather permits. More images and pancake breakfast details coming in future posts.

We hope to increase our activities in the next months, bringing greater visibility to food and infrastructure issues in order to slowly transform how we, and our neighbors, think about our living and shared spaces, and how they can function in new ways.

Block by block cooperation!

Tags: backyard farming, maple trees, neighborhood orchard, pancake breakfast, wine punk