Maple Syrup Day 2014

Hartwick Pines State Park’s Michigan Forest Visitor Center and the Logging Museum present Maple Syrup Day on March 22, 2014, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Plan to spend the day at Hartwick Pines State Park to enjoy learning about North America’s oldest agricultural product, maple sugar! Visitors to the park will be able to:

• walk into the sugarbush to help tap a maple tree,
• observe the boil-down process which converts maple sap to maple syrup,
• learn about the history of maple sugar making in North America,
• view videos titled “Maple Sugar Farmer,” “Maple Sugaring” and “The Maple Sugaring Story,”
• ask an expert about how to start making maple syrup and tap trees in your own backyard.
• taste maple sap and the finished maple syrup, and
• purchase genuine maple sugar candy and syrup.

Children can participate in tapping a maple tree and will learn how to build their own mokuk. A mokuk is a birch bark container in which native peoples transported maple sugar. Making a paper mokuk replica provides a history lesson and discussion about how European settlers learned of the Native Americans’ sugaring culture.

Tree tapping demonstrations will take place at 10:30, 11:30, 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 in the Sugar Bush and some visitors will be able to help us tap the maple trees.

Visitors will be able to taste maple syrup and sap, smell the aroma around an outside evaporator pan and welcome spring at this educational and fun event. Maple recipes will be available for those wishing to savor the sweetness of the day.

The Department of Natural Resources and the Friends of Hartwick Pines State Park co-sponsor this special event.

There is no fee for this event, but you must have a recreation passport for entry.