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Today’s Forecast

52º | Mostly sunny | 11% chance of rain | Sunrise 7:16 a.m. | Sunset 5:34 p.m.
 

🌳 Sappy little trees

Q+A: Tapping the sweet secrets of Oregon’s native maple trees
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The leaves of a bigleaf maple tree give its identity away; in winter, look for vertically striped bark patterns, moss and licorice ferns growing on bark, and branches that grow in opposite formations. | Photo by Cambrie Juarez, PDXtoday
Maple trees of the Pacific Northwest may be leafless in the winter, but beneath their mossy bark flows a substance that humans have harvested for generations: sap.

Hidden within the sap in such low quantities as to be all but impossible to detect by taste is sugar. Turning sap into maple syrup is a process known as “sugaring,” and involves tapping a tree, collecting its sap, and boiling off the water until sweet, dark syrup remains.

The Oregon Maple Project is focused on specifically sugaring bigleaf maple trees. Eliza Nelson, the organization’s founder and director, developed a passion for sugaring while growing up in Vermont. She made her first bigleaf syrup in 2018 after moving to the PNW and launched the Oregon Maple Project two years later, bringing sugaring opportunities and education to the Portland area.

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Melanie Douville, program coordinator at the Oregon Maple Project, taps a bigleaf maple at Hoyt Arboretum.

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Photo by Cambrie Juarez, PDXtoday

How common is sugaring here in the PNW?

While we know that Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest have always valued the bigleaf maple for many uses, harvesting sap from the tree for syrup is a more recent activity. Many hobby tappers have been active over the past 50 years in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. Over the past decade, the bigleaf maple sugaring movement has grown, due to: new publicity; use of efficient sugaring methods from the East; research at Oregon State, Washington State, and University of Washington; and the success of first commercial producers.

Does tapping a tree damage it in any way? Do you generally need access to a large number of trees?

Careful, cleaning tapping methods do not necessarily hurt a tree, but they do leave scar tissue in the xylem tubing above and below the taphole. Sap will no longer flow in that section of the tree, so new tap holes need to be drilled on a separate section of the tree’s trunk. To make a measurable amount of bigleaf maple syrup, it helps to tap 10-25 trees. The sap-to-syrup ratio for bigleaf is usually 100:1.

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Eliza Nelson stands beside the Oregon Maple Project’s evaporator. It takes about 40 gallons of bigleaf maple sap to make a single gallon of maple syrup.

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Photo courtesy of Eliza Nelson

What’s the best way for someone with no experience to get started?

Come to one of our weekend sugaring workshops! We lead them once a month throughout the 6-month sugaring season.
Where to buy it + how to join
 
Events
Tuesday, Feb. 13
  • Valentine’s Pop-Up | Tuesday, Feb. 13 | 5-8 p.m. | Fancy Banana, 2300 SE Seventh Ave., Portland | Free | Pick up something sweet for your sweetheart, from ceramics and chocolates to dried floral arrangements and wine.
  • Lupine Pop-Up | Tuesday, Feb. 13 | 5-9 p.m. | The Houston Blacklight, 2100 SE Clinton St., Portland | Free | Treat your “palentine” to dishes like Sour Pork Rib Pozole and Cà Phê Trung Tiramisu paired with cocktails; part of the proceeds will benefit Blanchet House.
Wednesday, Feb. 14
  • Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show | Wednesday, Feb. 14-Sunday, Feb. 18 | Times vary | Portland Expo Center, 2060 Marine Dr. W., Portland | $10-$32 | “The largest sport show west of the Mississippi” enters its 49th year with seminars and 700+ fishing, hunting, and outdoor recreation-related companies showing and selling their wares and services.
  • Lunar New Year Lantern Viewing Evenings | Wednesday, Feb. 14-Wednesday, Feb. 28 | 5-7 p.m. | Lan Su Chinese Garden, 239 NW Everett St., Portland | $10-$20 | Celebrate the Year of the Dragon with a stroll through the garden, taking in the beautiful glow of lanterns and sipping aromatic tea.
  • “When We Were Ocean” | Wednesday, Feb. 14-Sunday, Feb. 18 | Times vary | OMSI’s Kendall Planetarium, 1945 SE Water Ave., Portland | $35-$40 | Live dancers and musicians will perform in harmony with 360-degree films to take viewers on an immersive, multi-sensory journey through the different states of being human.
Thursday, Feb. 15
  • Twilight Saga Trivia | Thursday, Feb. 15 | 7 p.m. | Three Mugs Brewing Company, 2020 NE Aloclek Dr., Ste. 108, Hillsboro | Free | All ages are invited to sink their teeth into this test of knowledge regarding Stephanie Meyer’s romance fantasy stories.
Friday, Feb. 16
  • Priscilla Block | Friday, Feb. 16 | 9 p.m. | Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., Portland | $20 | Experience the artist’s unique blend of country pop and southern rock with songs that promote self-love, empowerment, and acceptance.
Events calendar here
Click here to have your event featured.
 
Arts

Grab tickets for Spotlight: A Family Arts Festival
a girl sings on a stage in front of a microphone
Spend the weekend surrounded by art, music, and live performances at Spotlight. | Photo by David Kinder
Portland is a treasure trove of incredible art. For one weekend only, you can see it all. Music, dance, theater, and visual art will fill every corner of The Judy, Portland’s downtown hub for youth arts, during Spotlight: A Family Arts Festival, happening on Saturday, Feb. 24 + Sunday, Feb. 25.

Performances + demonstrations will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day across all three performance spaces at The Judy. The fantastic lineup of artists includes:
  • Becky Hawkins (Visual Art)
  • Caitlin Yarsky (Visual Art)
  • Catalyst: NWCT’s Youth Company (Music & Theater)
  • Corazones Alegres Ballet Folklórico (Dance)
  • Kids Junk Orchestra (Music)
  • Leila Del Duca (Visual Art)
  • NWCT’s John Ellingson (Music & Theater)
  • and more
The best part? Portlanders can join in on the fun. Boogie down to the sounds of Mo Phillips, help build a giant Lego installation with Brick Bending, find your beat with Kids Junk Orchestra’s bucket drums, and more. Tickets start at $10.
Buy tickets
News Notes
Edu
  • Portland State University is one of 10 US institutions chosen to join the Sloan Centers for Systemic Change’s STEM initiative. The corresponding $250,000 grant will allow PSU to recruit, retain, and invest in individual scholarships for eligible Black, Indigenous, and Latiné doctoral students over the next two years. (OPB)
Open
  • Sleepless and snacky? Portland’s first Insomnia Cookies is now open at 3301 SE Division St. to cure your late-night sweet tooth. The national bakery chain serves cookies, ice cream, and other treats until 1 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. (Portland Business Journal)
Community
  • A couple of weeks ago, the tiny tree growing in the world’s smallest park disappeared. It’s not the first time such a fate has befallen Mill Ends Park, and Portland Parks & Recreation plans to plant a new dwarf Alberta spruce in the coming days. (KGW)
Civic
  • The Federal Highway Administration has officially approved the Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge, thus concluding the project’s environmental review phase. Now, the design phase begins, with engineers, architects, community groups, and other agencies ironing out everything from lighting to long-term maintenance needs. (KOIN)
Number
  • 107. That’s how many boats were disposed of through Metro’s temporary boat turn-in program. The six-month program funded by House Bill 5202 disposed of boats identified by their owners as unwanted, unseaworthy, or damaged — for free — with help from the Oregon State Marine Board and Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office River Patrol.
Travel
  • Alaska Airlines is adding more daily nonstop routes from Portland International Airport to domestic locations. The rollout will happen in two parts: new flights to places like Las Vegas and Sacramento will begin Aug. 20, while flights to destinations like Medford and Denver will be added Oct. 1. (Portland Business Journal)
Outdoors
  • Eagles are aplenty in the farmlands around Corvallis. The birds of prey (we recently spotted both bald and golden eagles) flock to the Willamette Valley in increasing numbers each winter to feast on sheep carcasses, with convocations up to 100 strong on display in the evenings. (KGW)
Holiday
 
Try This

🤡 Calling all class clowns

Calling all class clowns: Portland Rose Festival seeks new aspiring performers
About 20 people dressed in colorful clothes and wearing facepaint pose on a parade float.
Keep your day job while living out the age-old dream of joining the circus. | Photo courtesy of Portland Rose Festival Foundation
The Portland Rose Festival is looking for new volunteers who enjoy clowning around. Literally.

From now until Thursday, Feb. 29, people 13 and older can apply to join the Rose Festival Clowns. The group’s mission is to bring “color, humor, and playfulness” to those who attend the annual festival’s parades and events. All creative types — think artists, acrobats, animal trainers, etc. — are invited to apply and no prior experience is required.

The colorful, cheery cadre is led by Rose Festival Clown Prince Angel Ocasio. New recruits will learn how to turn their natural knack for entertaining and silliness into a circus act under Ocasio’s coaching.

Auditions will be held on March 13. Those who are accepted into the Rose Festival Clowns will take part in a workshop in April.
The Buy

The Buy 2.13.24 (Affiliate + Six & Main)
This margarita mixers bundle, since National Margarita Day is coming up on Thursday, February 22 and we’re trying to be as prepared as possible, thank you very much. Get four margarita flavors to play with including “Simple Margarita” and “Blood Orange Margarita.”
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The Wrap
 
Cambrie Juarez headshot

Today’s edition by:
Cambrie
From the editor
Early signs of spring are making me giddy. Within the last few days, I spotted tiny flowering plum blossoms in Southwest Portland and heard songbirds singing their morning salutations.
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