The Annual Maple Boil Down has become a widely popular tradition here in the city, and the preceding collection of maple sap is currently underway.

As part of this project, a team of volunteers taps a swath of maple trees on the Tufts campus, collecting dozens of gallons of sap over a number of weeks.

At the Maple Boil Down event, taking place on Saturday, March 7, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., at the Somerville Community Center, the sap is boiled down into real, true 100% hyper-local maple syrup.

At this fun and flavorful event, youth and adults alike have a chance to learn about tree anatomy and physiology and experience the process of making fresh maple syrup first-hand.

Participants watch first-hand as sap collected from sugar maple trees on the Tufts Campus is boiled into syrup, and connect with others in the community.

The first tapping and boil-down was in March 2000. Volunteers tapped trees at the Growing Center and in the yard of Lisa Brukilacchio, the city’s Green Space Coordinator, and that of her neighbor, and used a basic “furnace” made out of cinderblocks. The following year, they connected with Tufts University to tap trees on campus, and students built from scratch a metal furnace that retained heat better than the cinderblock one.

Each February, a team of volunteers taps a swath of maple trees on the Tufts campus, collecting gallons of sap over a number of weeks.

Read more about the Somerville Maple Syrup Project at www.thegrowingcenter.org/maplesyrupproject.