MAPLE SUGARING PROGRAM: Station Activities

Firewood Cutting: Cutting firewood for sap boiling is the first step in preparing for a sugaring operation. We will help you keep warm by putting you to work sawing wood with a two-person saw and splitting wood with a wedge and hammer. You will learn about types of wood used for fuel, buildings, fencing and tools.

Tree Tapping and Sap Gathering: Learn how to identify a sugar maple tree. Volunteers from your group will help us tap a sugar maple tree. All will taste the sap if it is flowing before beginning the work of collecting it from the many trees in our "sugarbush". You will load some of the sap on a horse or oxen drawn wagon to take back to the farm for syrup making.

Syrup Making: Learn how sap is boiled down in our "evaporator" to make syrup. Make yourself a homemade tap from a piece of staghorn sumac and learn how the methods of collecting and cooking the sap have changed over time. Learn how maple syrup is “graded” and see different products made from maple syrup.

Pancake Making and Tasting: Using wheat grown on the Farm, help us grind and sift flour. Then take a turn churning butter. Learn about the conveniences of a circa 1900 kitchen while you sample a pancake topped with homemade butter and maple syrup.