Homemade rock candy. A fun candy treat to make. Hung from our tree inside...
...our pretty candy crystals look as sweet as nature's candy hanging from the sugar maple trees outside. When deer foraging in the woodland nibbled the maple branches, sweet sap dripped from the tree's twig tips. This sap froze into pure sweet popsicles our daughter discovered. She reached up for one of these natural popsicles while we were tapping this tree for sap, to make another sweet treat—maple syrup*. Our little ones enjoyed the sweet sap-cicles on the maple candy tree outside—and the rock candy from our candy tree inside too.
outside: sweet sap-cicle on a Sugar Maple Tree. inside: our own homemade rock candy tree.
all-natural rock candy recipe
Heat 2 cups water in a saucepan until it comes to a boil. Dissolve 4 cups sugar in the boiling water. Stir constantly until solution is clear and it comes to a rolling boil. Pour sugar water into 4 wide-mouth glass jars or 8 glass drinking glasses. Dip string (we used pretty pink and white twirled string) into the sugar water. Cover the jars of sugar solution and lay the dipped strings on wax paper to dry for a few days.
Go on a nature scavenger hunt for twigs. Break these sticks into lengths that can be set across the tops of the jars filled with sugar water. Hang the soaked strings on the twigs so they soak in the solution. Watch the crystals grow little by little each day, but do not touch the jars. Beautiful, and edible, rock candy crystals will grow over the next week or more. Recipe adapted from exploritorium.edu
This recipe is double fun because of the twig scavenger hunt!
left and middle: making our own rock candy. right: our youngest making a silly moustache with a twig.
*See how we tapped our trees for Maple syrup! ©heather cahoon • wordplayhouse®
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