Tuesday, June 17, 2025
In a sweet blend of tradition, science and hard work, the Scouts of Troop 253, in Oyster Bay, recently wrapped up their first season of maple syrup production, tapping dozens of trees on a historic farm owned by the town.
Armed with roughly $3,000 worth of professional-grade equipment and a bold idea, the scouts harvested 80 gallons of sap from about 30 trees this winter, eventually boiling it down to roughly a gallon and a half of rich, dark amber maple syrup. Affectionately branded Two Fifty Tree, the syrup even has a custom label featuring Teddy Roosevelt.
“It sounded cool. It sounded interesting. Definitely, like, sounded like a challenge,” Scout James Syrett, 14, said. “It was really interesting to both learn where everything comes from, (and) also learn how to do it.”
“It took a really long time too,” Scout Peyton Roberts, 12, added. “We started at 11:30 in the morning, and we finished like 12 hours later.”
Scoutmaster Darren Costanzo, who has led Troop 253 for the past five years, said the project began with a map, an idea and a desire to give scouts a hands-on experience that would teach them both skills and values.
“I had this crazy idea after looking at a map, realizing that the area where maple syrup is produced primarily in the United States is this area that’s in New England, but Long Island actually is wrapped up in that area,” Costanzo said. “It’s an optimal place to make maple syrup.”
The challenge, he explained, is that Long Island lacks the large, dense maple forests that make syrup production viable on a commercial scale. Still, the troop decided to give it a try.
They took a field trip to upstate New York, where they visited a small maple farm called Corey’s Sugar Shack, owned and operated by a retired construction worker named John Corey.
“He gave us a lot of advice,” Costanzo said. “He showed the kids how it’s done … He said, ‘Don’t even waste your time with some of this small-time equipment … buy all the hoses and lines and all the right stuff and do it right from the beginning.’”
Heeding Corey’s advice, the troop purchased equipment and started scouting local properties for a “sugar bush” — a stand of maples suitable for tapping. The Town of Oyster Bay offered its support, allowing the scouts access to a former farm that had been operated for generations by the Roberts family. Troop 253 member Peyton Roberts still lives on the property with his mother, who grew up there and serves as its caretaker.
The troop installed a system of hoses and vacuum pumps to collect sap from two clusters of trees, feeding it all into a 275-gallon collection tank. They even built a reverse osmosis system to remove water from the sap before boiling it, a technique used by professionals to save time and energy.
“Fortunately, we have a plumbing-supply assistant scoutmaster that’s in my troop,” Costanzo said. “That’s what he does for a living. And another one’s an actual plumber. So they taught the boys everything they needed to know.”
From tapping to bottling, the process took about a month. Boiling the sap down into syrup alone took 11 hours.
“To me, being out in the woods and learning new skills and all those kinds of things really had a huge impact on me as a kid,” Costanzo said. “So I took that, and I wanted to do 10 times that for these kids.”
Troop 253, based in the hamlet, has a history stretching back to the 1940s. With 40 or so members ranging in age from 11 to 18, the troop has built a reputation for developing motivated, skilled scouts — many of whom have earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
“We’ve been very fortunate — a lot of motivated kids,” Costanzo said. “There’s quite a few kids that are going to be making Eagle within the next year.”
Throughout the project, town workers and staff lent a hand, often checking in on the sap lines when scouts couldn’t be there. Costanzo was quick to credit their support.
“I have to thank the Town of Oyster Bay for being just incredibly supportive of the scouts and allowing them to, you know, to learn,” he said. “The town workers made sure they let us know if they saw something or heard something that didn’t look right.”
For the scouts, the project was more than a science experiment — it was a chance to connect with the environment, learn real-world skills and enjoy the literal fruits, in syrupy form, of their labor.
“It was really interesting to both learn where everything comes from (and) also learn how to do it,” Costanzo’s son, Marco, 12, said.
And they don’t plan to stop with just one batch of syrup. Costanzo said the troop already plans to expand its sap-tapping operation next year with improved systems and new sugar bushes.
“Scouting is really about adults teaching the youth everything they know,” Costanzo said. “Teaching them a skill, teaching them how to make something from nothing — and that was the whole idea around this. We had no idea it would be as successful as it was.”
To learn more about Troop 253, visit its website at Troop253OBEN.com.
