Our mission at Incredible Edible Merchantville is to nurture environmental stewardship through the development of edible landscapes that support food security, promote a healthy culture, connect community and foster a sustainable future. Stockton University's Maple Project is currently looking to identify several more hubs before the maple season starts in January and our team is working to pilot this program in town. We recently received a $1000 grant from Sustainable South Jersey's Caren Kaufman Memorial Grant to pursue this initiative.
Sustainable SJ also wants the opportunity to profile our work that benefits from this grant rooted in our interest in becoming a HUB for the Stockton University USDA grant to promote maple sugaring in the South Jersey region through research and community outreach.
On Saturday, October 5th, IE had an information table at their "Growing Together" event, attended maple tree education sessions and toured Maple Grove, where we learned how sap is collected and converted to syrup. The Maple Project would provide IE with a loaner evaporator for 5 years to boil the sap, and we would be responsible for evaporation supplies, as well as, tapping, collection and sap storage until ready for the conversion process.
As part of our grant application we promised to fund the following: identify Maple Species and Conduct a residential tree inventory; purchase/install evaporator and supplies; host at least two (2) community/school education programs; provide links for community to educational materials; register volunteers; promote the project on social media; host an ""Adopt-A-Tree"" event; create a Tree Tapping/Sap Evaporation schedule; and, measure and provide sap data to Stockton U. Maple Project. Incredible Edible looks forward to working with the Green Team and the Borough to become a Stockton University's Maple Project HUB!
If you would like to help with this project please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.