Hundreds of people attended Groundwork Somerville’s annual Maple Syrup Boil Down Festival at the Somerville Community Growing Center on March 9. Participants watched and learned about maple syrup’s journey from raw tree sap to the maple syrup they know and love.

Groundwork Somerville offered the remainder of last year’s Maple Syrup Boil Down product for sale.

Groundwork Somerville collected sap from maple trees at Tufts University. The sap, pictured, had to be chiseled into pieces before going into the wood-stove boiler.

The sap boils for hours in order to reduce the water content by about 90 percent. Roughly 40 gallons of sap produce 1 gallon of finished maple syrup.

Chris Mancini, of Groundwork Somerville, offered samples of unfinished sap to participants.

Adelyn Grant, 5, test-tasted the unfinished sap with her family. She said it tasted like “sugar water.”

Jonah Segal, who turns 6 next week, enjoyed waffles and pure maple syrup. He said that both he and his sister Annie thought the syrup was “good.” Groundwork Somerville also offered apples, hot cocoa and cider for sale.

An activity table allowed kids to draw pictures of tree rings or design posters for next year’s festival. Echo Coffin, 2, elected to draw a crab.

At a tools demonstration table, Groundwork Somerville compared old tools for making syrup to modern tools. In the past, harvesters used hollowed out sumac branches, hand drill,s and birch-bark baskets to collect sap.

The modern, metal spile was created during the industrialization period and made harvesting syrup more efficient.

The Somerville Community Growing Center, which hosted the Maple Syrup Boil Down Festival, set up shop to inform participants about their mission to produce food and grow community in Somerville.

Scarlett Moss, 3, enjoyed the recent snowfall. Her father, David, said they found the event online and decided to come. “I’m enjoying it, it’s unique,” he said