Just north of Green Bay, on 920 acres of county land, the excitement is coming to a boil this week.
That's because, at the Barkausen Wildlife Preserve, it's maple tapping season. And the payoff is oh so sweet.
It all starts along the west shore of the Bay of Green Bay.
"There's a lot of wetland habitat, obviously a lot of woods," says wildlife preserve program & natural resource coordinator Jason Petrella, standing in front of a boiling vat of maple sap. "We have a little stream that goes through here."
Standing in the sugar shack on site, it's clear something tasty is cooking.
"For us, maple syrup is happening right now," says Petrella.
At the Barkhausen Wildlife Preserve, Petrella says they've got the two main ingredients for making maple syrup, starting with plenty of maple trees.
"The other big thing is weather. You've got to have cold nights-below freezing nights-and above freezing temperatures during the day," says Petrella, "and you need to have that for about a month period."
Petrella says this year's maple sap season was threatened by a February warm spell.
"If it stayed that way, and didn't get that cold snap at the beginning of March," says Petrella, "the season probably would've been over about a week ago."
Petrella says they're on track with more than 160 gallons of sap collected since Sunday alone.
"We don't actually finish making maple syrup in here," says Petrella, stepping back inside the Doug Hartman Sugar Shack, "but the bulk of the work is done right here."
Standing over the boiling vat of sap, stoked by an open flame, Petrella explains the process.
"So, this big pan right here is what we call our evaporator pan. We've got about 96 trees tapped," says Petrella. "We'll collect the sap, [and] throw the sap in our evaporator pan.. get that fire going, and start cooking it. And, we're just trying to keep it at a boil, and it's boiling really good right now."
The boiling evaporates the sap's water--all 98% of it--leaving the 2% or so of sugar behind.
Petrella says it has to be 66-67% sugar, and 33% water to make syrup.
"About, on average, 44-50 gallons of sap to get us a gallon of syrup," says Petrella.
Make no mistake about it: All of this is a lot of hard work, and it's time consuming.
But, when the end product is this sweet, it's all worth it.
"Nothing is ever added to maple syrup. It's all what the tree had made," explains Petrella. "I'm actually taking something away from it."
Petrella says the results are varied enough for every kind of syrup fan.
"Is it really good if it's really light? They say 'yeah,' but I like some of the darker stuff better," laughs Patrella, holding samples of amber-colored syrup. "So, it's kind of subjective."
This week, Barkhausen leaders are preparing to pass this tradition on to the public.
"This is an aspen tree-a popple tree," points out Patrella. "This is a good practice tree."
Petrella says people are invited to come tour the preserve, and get a first-hand experience into the world of maple syrup making, from tap to table.
"They get to actually help drill into a tree, do the whole process," says Patrella, "tap a spiel-which is what this is, right here."
It's an experience made all the sweeter by heading outdoors.
On Wednesday morning Barkhausen is hosting a pre-registration only program on syrup making.
