Sugar Camp Days

Sugar Camp Days are set for March 21 and 22, 2015, in Bendix Woods County Park, Timothy Road, New Carlisle, Indiana.

Visitors can watch sap boil down into syrup and tour the sugar bush. A bonus: The New Carlisle Lion’s Club will be serving up a pancake and sausage breakfast (an annual fundraiser), and there’ll be homemade baked goods made with maple syrup for sale.

Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and admission is $7 per vehicle.

(Photo by Joe Zlomek)

Maple Syrup Festival

This is the 46th year for the Maple Syrup Festival, 403 South Wabash, Wakarusa, Indiana.

April 24, 25 and 26, 2015, Road Trips Foodies can visit with history re-enactors at the Wakarusa Historical Museum and take a sugar camp tour to see how the sweet stuff is made.

It’s sponsored by the Wakarusa Chamber of Commerce.

(Photo courtesy of Wakarusa Maple Syrup Festival)

National Maple Syrup Festival

Set your sights for Indiana's Brown County the first weekend in March. That's the new location for the National Maple Syrup Festival.

From March 5 through 8, 2015, there'll be tree tapping, sap boiling and lots of foods and drinks using maple syrup as an ingredient in and around Brown County State Park.

The Dutch Oven Diva will cook, bake and have samples of her sweet and savory foods around a huge stone fireplace in Brown County State Park. The rangers there will lead interpretive hikes, teaching how to identify maple trees in winter and spring. Descendents of the Delaware and Shawnee native tribes will reenact how their ancestors made maple syrup on this land centuries ago, and, nearby, French Colonial reenactors will demonstrate how early white settlers made it differently.

The Story Inn will be home to the Sweet Victory Challenge, a culmination of national recipe contests for youth and adults, involving chefs, food writers and bloggers.

Downtown Nashville’s Pioneer Village will come alive with demonstrations of early pioneer sugaring methods. Nashville restaurants and retailers will focus on maple-related foods and wares, food and art artisans with candies, breads, chocolates and other foods and art from maple sap and maple trees will line the streets.

Authors who have written on the maple syrup craft will be featured guests at dinners with foods and beers from maple syrup.

Ever had a pancake flipped onto your plate from 20 yards? Chris Cakes travels the country making pancakes coupled with a show like none other, and the Brown County High School is hosting that show on the mornings of March 7 and 8.

Maine Maple Sunday

Maine Maple Sunday is the perfect day to be driving in the Pine Tree State. At least a dozen sugaring sites are joining in the 30th annual celebration, set for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 23, 2014. (Check the website closer to the date for a more complete listing.)

Sponsored by the Maine Maple Producers Association, the day includes sugarhouse visits, sugar bush tours and demonstrations on making maple syrup. There'll be plenty of maple treats to sample and buy, including maple cotton candy, maple sausage, ice cream with maple syrup and more.

Here are some of places to visit:
Luce's Saphouse
Rockwall Maple Farm
Smith Brothers Maple
Little Pond Sugarhouse
Strawberry Hill Farms
Wilson Family Maple
Bacon Farm
Old Fort Western
Hill Top Farm
Mike's Maple Sugar House
Sugar Brook Maple Farm
Linwood Acres

Check out a video of a past Maple Sunday:

Maple Syrup Time in New York State

Wandering upstate New York next month, Road Trips Foodies? There are several chances to watch sugaring.

The Farmers' Museum, 5775 State Highway 80 (Lake Road), Cooperstown, New York (map), holds "Sugaring off Sundays" each Sunday in March.

The event March 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31 features historic and contemporary sugaring demonstrations, children's activities and more. A full pancake breakfast is served from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. with other activities scheduled 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Have a taste of “jack wax” — hot maple syrup poured over snow.

Cost for ages 13 and up is $9; ages 7–12, $5, 6 and under are free -- and this includes full breakfast. Reservations are not required.

Two Maple Weekends also are scheduled, in which producers from across the state welcome families to their farms to experience firsthand how real maple syrup and other related products are made.

Maple Weekends will be held March 16 and 17 plus March 23 and 24, 2013, at 123 locations throughout upstate New York (see the map).

(Photo courtesy of Maple Weekends)

Wakarusa Maple Syrup Festival

The following announcement gives you an idea of the distinctly local flavor of this popular northern Indiana festival (dates this year are April 15 and 16, 2011, in Wakarusa, Indiana):

The Elkhart County Community Foundation has awarded the Wakarusa Historical Society in conjunction with the Wakarusa Maple Syrup Festival Sugar Camp and Wakarusa Chamber of Commerce grant monies to purchase "Boiling Pans" and "Evaporator"

For over 40 years area school children grades 2 – 4 are formally invited and everyone is welcome to take the educational tour of a working Maple Sugar Camp!

Existing pans and evaporator are privately owned by the Amish men who have run the camp for 10 years; Eli Kuhns and Wilbur Miller, both syrup manufacturers by trade. Previously Wilbur would bring his own pans to town to be used during Education Days (the third week in March) and during the Maple Syrup Festival (third weekend in April) to provide the FREE working Sugar Camp Tours. With March, being prime tapping time, Wilbur would have to take the sap he gathered at his home to Eli’s house to boil, as his pans were being used for Education Days.

The Wakarusa Historical Society and Maple Syrup Festival Committee and the Wakarusa Chamber of Commerce are indebted with gratitude to these two men for all they have done to keep this important tradition alive but would like to properly own the pans and the evaporator. This would free these men from sacrificing their own equipment as well as provide the added security that the camp can exist when and if these men decide to retire and another take their place.

There are all sorts of maple-themed events (go online to see them all), including lots of chances to taste all things maple.

The annual event is sponsored by the Wakarusa Chamber of Commerce.

Maple Syrup Festival

The 20th annual Maple Syrup Festival at Leane and Michael's Sugarbush in southern Indiana will be held two weekends: February 26 and 27 plus March 5 and 6, 2011. Hours all four days are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tours will start every hour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but you can take a self-guided tour of the sugarhouse with an operating evaporator. Syrup-making demonstrations showing Native American (as pictured) and pioneer methods will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

There'll be maple syrup, maple candy, maple cream and maple cotton candy for sale, along with home-baked maple goods. If you want something more to eat, there'll be pancakes and waffles plus chicken, pork chop or pulled pork dinners (and, yes, there's carry-out available).

Sugarbush is located at 321 North Garrison Hollow Road, Salem, Indiana (that's north of SR160, 7.6 miles west of I-65 at Henryville, and 10.5 miles east of Salem). For more information, call 812:967-4491 or 877:841-8851.

For more tourist information about the area, go online.

Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival

Michigan's maple syrup industry ranks fifth in the nation! One of the places in the state to celebrate the sweet stuff is the 70th annual Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival, set for 23-25 April. The syrup producers are located throughout the village selling syrup, candies, crème and the ever-popular maple syrup cotton candy. Besides, there are pancakes with real maple syrup offered by the Maple Valley Band Boosters and the American Legion. Celebrate the first agricultural crop of the season! (Look for Vermontville to the west of Lansing.)

Here are some simple things to do with maple syrup, courtesy of Vermontville:

Hard Maple Sugar
Darker grades of syrup are suitable for making maple sugar. Heat a quantity of maple syrup until the temperature is approximately 40° F above the boiling point of water (to 252° F). Remove from heat and being stirring immediately. When the syrup begins to thicken and sugar crystals form, pour the partially crystallized syrup into molds to harden.

Soft Maple Sugar Candy
Heat pure maple syrup to a temperature of 27ºF above the boiling point of water (to 239ºF). Allow to cool slowly, preferably by settling the pan on a wooden surface for even distribution of heat. When the temperature of the syrup solution reaches 155ºF, stir with a wooden spoon. When crystallization begins (syrup will be soft and plastic) pour into molds to allow to harden.

Granulated (stirred) Sugar
Heat the syrup to a temperature between 40ºF and 45ºF above the boiling point of water (to 252ºF to 257ºF). Immediately pour the hot syrup into a large tray or wooden trough for stirring. Continue stirring until all moisture has completely evaporated and granulation is completed.

Maple Cream
Use light colored grades of syrup for best results. Heat the syrup 22ºF to 24ºF above boiling point of water (234ºF to 236ºF). Remove from heat and cool rapidly to 70ºF or below (50ºF is preferable). Stir the stiffened, cooled syrup with a wooden spoon until creaming is completed. While still in a pourable condition, transfer to storage jars or containers. Store under refrigeration.
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Maple-on-Snow
A favorite product for parties, this taffy-like product is simple to produce. Heat the desired amount of syrup to a temperature of 18ºF to 23ºF above the boiling point of water (to 230ºF to 235ºF).Without stirring, pour immediately over clean, fresh snow or shaved ice. Since the cooling is rapid, the supersaturated solution does not have time to crystallize, and thus forms a glassy taffy-like sheet. Serve with fresh unsweetened doughnuts and dill or sour pickles.

Other Maple Products
Maple syrup is widely used as an ingredient in a variety of other food products. Because of its high sugar content, it can be substituted for sugar in many recipes. When substituting, use 1½ cups of pure maple syrup for each cup of granulated sugar, and add ¼ teaspoon baking soda for each cup of maple syrup used. When maple syrup is substituted for all sugar in a recipe, reduce the amount of liquid used by one half. If maple syrup is substituted for half the sugar, reduce liquid amounts by one-fourth

Parke County Syrup Festival

Nothing signals the end of winter better than maple syrup festivals! One of the largest takes place throughout Parke County in west central Indiana. This year's dates are February 27 and 28 plus March 6 and 7. Not only do Road Trips Foodies get to see how the sweet stuff is produced, but there are the scenic drives along country roads punctuated with Parke County's famous covered bridges! Maple sugar camps on the tour this year are Foxworthy, Williams & Teague, Smiley’s Camp, Sweetwater Farms, and Baird’s Sugar Shack.

The festival headquarters is on US 41, one mile north of Rockville, Indiana, at the county 4-H Fairgrounds. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Maps and information will be provided for all the places you’ll want to visit in Parke County, but there's a reason to stick around the fairgrounds for a bit: pancakes are served all day with whole-hog sausage and maple syrup (of course). In addition, the fairgrounds will have maple syrup, maple sugar candy and maple syrup cookies for sale, plus the works of Parke County artisans, handmade crafts, home baked goodies, jams and jellies. The Butcher Shop sells smoked ham, bacon, country pork sausage and cheese. so that you can take home some of that great country flavor. Parke County Collectibles is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with handmade and homegrown products for sale from appliquéd clothing to woodcrafts.

19th Annual Maple Syrup Festival

Maple syrup festival dates for 2010 are starting to roll in. The 19th annual Maple Syrup Festival at Leane and Michael's Sugarbush, 321 North Garrison Hollow Road, Salem, Indiana, will be held 27 and 28 February and 6 and 7 March 2010.

There's a tour of the sugarbush every hour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., both Native American (see photo, above) and pioneer syrup making demonstrations between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., and self-guided tours of the sugarhouse. There'll be games, crafts, mule-drawn wagon rides, llamas, candle-making and traditional fiddle, gospel and dulcimer music. And, of course, you can purchase maple syrup, maple candy, maple cream and maple cotton candy!

Here are driving directions:
From I-65 take exit 19 at Henryville
Go west on SR 160 for 7.6 miles
Turn right onto New Salem Road, go 1.7 miles
Turn left onto Thomas Lane, go 0.8 miles
Turn right onto Garrison Hollow Rd, go 0.8 miles
Sugarbush is on the right with parking on the left

National Maple Syrup Festival

Maple Syrup Season is truly one of the first signs of spring, as the cold winter months slowly slip away and the forest floor comes to life. What better way to celebrate the coming of spring than to attend the grandly titled National Maple Syrup Festival in Medora, Ind.

This year's dates are 7-8 and 14-15 March 2009. For details, call 812:966-2168.

At Burton’s Maplewood Farm, nestled in the rolling hills of Southern Indiana, you can enjoy the taste of our country made hot pancakes with 100% pure Maple Syrup all day every day.

This maple festival is “Always the First and Second weekend in March” and is located two miles north of Medora, Ind. These two weekends offer something for everyone in the family. A variety of fun-filled events, activities, Live-music & demonstrations are sure to keep you entertained and coming back for more year after year.

Admission $8.00; 2-day pass $12.00; 4-day pass $20.00; children 15 & younger $4.00 daily.

Maple Syrup Festival Indiana's Parke County

At winter’s end, Parke County’s Maple Syrup Producers begin tapping the maple trees that provide sugar water for making maple syrup. Join in on the two weekends of fun at the Parke County Maple Fair, Feb 21-22, Feb 28 & March 1. Travel country roads with world famous covered bridges and tour maple syrup camps throughout the county. See how maple syrup is made down at the "sugar camp" and sample its wonderful flavor.

The festival headquarters is located one mile north of Rockville, Indiana, on Highway 41 at the county 4-H Fairgrounds. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Maps and information will be provided for all the places you’ll want to visit in Parke County. Everyone from 4-H Junior Leaders to Senior Citizens get in on the act when its pancake flippin’ time, pancakes are served all day with whole hog sausage and golden maple syrup.

At the headquarters, maple syrup displays offer products such as pure maple syrup, maple sugar candy and maple syrup cookies. In addition to maple syrup products, you will find the works of Parke County artisans, handmade crafts, home baked goodies, and jams and jellies. An annual highlight of the Maple Syrup Festival is the Covered Bridge Art Association art display. Local artists will demonstrate their talents and have works of art for sale.

The Butcher Shop offers smoked ham, bacon, country pork sausage and cheese so that you can take home some of that great country flavor. Parke County Collectibles is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There you can shop for handmade and homegrown products, including hand made dolls and appliquéd clothing to woodcrafts and oil paintings.

Visitors tour maple sugar camps of Foxworthy, Williams & Teague, Smiley’s Camp, Sweetwater Farms, and Baird’s Sugar Shack, where sixty gallons of sugar water are reduced to make one gallon of golden maple syrup. A map and information may be picked up at the headquarters that will lead you to the camps in Parke County.

Tour all of Parke County’s Maple Syrup Camps by taking a map and striking out on your own. Rockville’s Historic Town Square welcomes you to browse in shops, antique malls and the Covered Bridge Art Gallery.

At the old opera house, now the Ritz Theatre, the Parke Players will offer a play on Feb 20, 21: Feb 27, 28 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $6 and can be purchased at the Headquarters or at the door.

Plan on spending more than just a day to enjoy maple syrup making, those world famous Covered Bridges and the scenic beauty of Parke County, from the frosty mornings to the crispy clear winter nights - there are lots of things to see and do.

Festival of the Maples in Perth, Ontario

Perth, "in the heart of maple syrup country in Eastern Ontario", holds its annual Festival of the Maples on the last Saturday in April (this year, that's 26 April).

Not One, but Two Pancake Breakfasts!

The 11th annual Maple Syrup Festival takes place in Powassan, Ontario, Canada, on 26 April.

Two pancake breakfasts are scheduled to start at 7 a.m. that day: one at St. Mary's Anglican Church and the other at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church.

Main Street will be filled with activities until 4 p.m.: sheep shearing, wool spilling, Scottish Heavy Events demos, antique car displays, West Coast Lumberjack show...and more. Of course, there'll be tours to the sugar bush!

Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival

The Vermontville (Michigan) Maple Syrup Festival starts at 10 a.m. 25 April with an arts and crafts show plus a flea market hosted by the Vermontville Woman's Club. It continues through the afternoon of 27 April, with a princess contest and egg toss that day.

In between are pancake breakfasts, BBQ chicken and roast beef dinners, a petting zoo and trolley rides. Oh, and yeah, there'll be lots of maple syrup! The tree is somewhat of an icon in the area, witness performances by the Maple Valley High School Choir.

Vermontville, a village west of Lansing, Michigan, was established in 1836. It boasts a population of 793 within its one-square-mile boundaries.

New Hampshire Maple Sugar Weekend

Consider a trip to New Hampshire on the weekend of 29-30 March. More than 140 sugarhouses will be open throughout the state. The New Hampshire Maple Producers Association has details, location maps and links to its members on its website, or call the Maple Hotline at 603:225-3757.

Geauga County Maple Festival

It's back for 2008, and bigger than ever, say the organizers of the annual Maple Festival in Geauga County, Ohio. Bathtub races, queen contest, a parade, carnival rides, pancake breakfasts (of course!), syrup and candy contests, tug-of-war and a battle of the bands are on the agenda for 27-30 March in Chardon, Ohio.

Maple Festivals in the Litchfield Hills

In the scenic Litchfield Hills of Connecticut, the crackling fires and boiling kettles of maple syrup are a tradition, the first happy sign that winter is on the way out. Visitors of all ages are welcome to visit the many sugar shacks on farms and nature centers in this maple-rich region, where fragrant syrup making is in full swing in March. Demonstrations will show the ways it has been done from Native American times to the present.

The newest sugarhouse in the area, Sweet Wind Farm in East Hartland, invites the whole family to their Maple Festival on 8 March from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The day will feature maple syrup and sugar making demonstrations, sugarhouse tours, a narrated slide show, a recipe class and story time for kids. Free coffee and syrup samples will be available for all.

Free Open House Maple Days on most Saturdays through early April also will allow visitors to come in and watch the process, ask questions and enjoy the sweet syrup scents. Though their super-modern facility was built in 2005, the Case family has been making maple syrup for over 30 years in Granby. The modern equipment in the new facility makes for high quality syrup as well as products such as maple sugar and lollipops, all for sale.

Lamothe's Sugar House in Burlington, one of the largest operations in the region with some 4,000 taps, is also offering free tours on their farm every Saturday and Sunday until the end of March. Visitors will see how maple syrup and sugar are made and enjoy samples of syrup, maple farmhouse coffee, and hot apple cider. The Lamothes also raises golden retrievers and lop-eared bunnies and children can see the adorable pups and bunnies.

Another chance to see maple syrup being made during the first three weekends in March is at Warrup’s Farm in Redding, an organic farm operated by the same family since the 1840s. A tour shows how the sap comes out of the trees, how it is taken to the storage tank, and then boiled down in the evaporator. Pure maple syrup and maple sugar can be purchased to take home.

Three ways of syrup making, past to present can be seen at the Great Brook Sugarhouse on Sullivan Farm in New Milford on 17 and 18 March. The Colonial and Civil War eras and the most high-tech modern techniques will be shown.

The Native American way of making maple syrup (pictured at left) will be demonstrated at the Algonkian Village at the Institute for Indian Study in Washington on 15 March, with staff members serving pancakes topped with local maple syrup. There will be games and crafts for the children.

The new Sugar House of the Flanders Nature Center in Woodbury is another opportunity to stand by the roaring wood stove on March weekends and watch the sap cook down into syrup. Demonstrations by staff and volunteers will bring the history, science, and humor of maple syrup production to life. Flanders' maple syrup and other maple products will be available for purchase.

Guided tours at the Sharon Audubon Center all day at the annual Maple Fest on 15 March will include the Center’s working sugarhouse. Samples of the freshly made syrup are handed out to guests. Syrup can be bought at the Center's Nature Store.

For a free brochure listing all Connecticut sugar houses, more information on winter activities, and a free copy of UNWIND, a 112-page color guide to lodging, dining and all the attractions in the Litchfield Hills, contact the Northwest Connecticut Convention and Visitors Bureau, PO Box 968, Litchfield, CT 06759, 860:567-4506.

Indian Lake State Park Maple Syrup Festival

The 23rd annual Maple Syrup Festival will be held at the Indian Lake State Park Campground, 13156 North State Route 235, Lakeview, Ohio, on 15 and 16 March. It's sponsored by the park, in conjunction with the Indian Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and the Indian Lake Development Corporation.

On the schedule are a pancake breakfast (of course!), sugar bush tours, syrup-making demonstrations -- and dulcimer music!

There's Sugaring in the Hocking Hills

"Maple Sugaring in the Hills" is set for noon to 4 p.m. 8 and 9 March in Hocking Hills State Park, southeastern Ohio. Head for the Naturalist Cabin, located behind the Old Man’s Cave Visitor Center. There is a pancake breakfast at the Hocking Hills State Park lodge the days of the festival. And believe it or not, they even serve local syrup on those pancakes!