We all love Maple Syrup for our pancakes, but have you ever wondered how and where we get our favorite breakfast condiment?! With sap flowing between mid-February and mid-March, the perfect ‘tapping’ times are upon us!  Help tap the trees this winter and enjoy some pancakes afterward at these local events. 

Maple’s Sweet Story @ Kensington Metropark, Milford

Saturdays & Sundays beginning February 22

Take a guided walk through the farm’s sugar bush. Learn how to pick the right tree, then watch how maple trees are tapped and sap is collected. Stop by the French and Native camp to hear and see how these techniques have changed through the years. Then visit the sugar shack to see and smell the sap being boiled down into maple sugar. Taste a sample of maple syrup at the end of the tour. Real maple sugar products and pancakes will be available for purchase.. Tours begin every ½ hour, last approximately one hour and are entirely outdoors

Maple Madness! Tap That Tree @ Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve, Rochester Hills

Saturday, February 22

Maple sugaring season is one of our favorite times of year at Dinosaur Hill. This program will focus on the history of maple sugaring and will also include a tapping demonstration. Take a tour of our historic “little house” and find out how early settlers and Native Americans used maple syrup and sugar. We’ll have some authentic treats to taste as well.

Maples Madness: Campfire Sugar @ Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve, Rochester Hills

Friday, February 28

Maple Madness Campfire Sugar – Learn about tapping a maple tree and then taste samples of treats you can make at home using maple syrup both sweet and savory, yum! The nature center will be open for warmth but cooking will take place around the campfire.

Maple Sugaring In Your Backyard @ Heritage Park, Farmington

Sunday, March 1

Celebrate Spring! Discover the basics of making maple syrup from your own Maple tree. Learn to identify and select a maple tree. Witness the ancient process of collecting the sap, then boiling it down to syrup. We will finish with a PURE maple syrup treat! Michigan maple syrup products will be exclusively available to participants for purchase.

Family Discovery Days – Maple Craft @ Indian Springs Metropark, White Lake

Saturday, March 7

March is Maple Sugaring month! This program gives families a chance to learn even more about maple trees and how their sap is turned into food products for people. Investigate what causes the sap to run in the trees during an interactive presentation, and the tools people use to collect the sap. You’ll learn what a spile is and make one of your own! We’ll also make decorative colorful maple leaves to take home. And be sure to buy some real maple syrup before you leave.

Maple Tapping and Pancake Feast @ MSU Tollgate Farm Children’s Garden, Novi

March 7 & 8

Start out with pancakes, coffee, cocoa, sausages and of course, Tollgate maple syrup! Then jump on the hay wagon to head out to the sugar bush, where you can watch sap get cooked into syrup, participate in tree tapping, visit the traditional sugar camp and watch our draft horse get to work!

Fun On The Farm: Maple Sugar @ Kensington Metropark, Milford

Thursday, March 12

Fun on the Farm is an indoor/outdoor biweekly children’s program series that focuses on different animals and aspects of farming. Each program will include a story time, a hands-on activity, and an in-person interaction all centered around this week’s theme. This week, children will have the opportunity to head out to the Farm Center’s Sugar Bush and learn about maple syrup and how it’s made.

Junior Naturalist Club: Maple’s Sweet Story @ Heritage Park, Farmington

Saturday, March 14

Enrich your child’s natural curiosity and encourage outdoor exploration through this hands-on nature discovery program. Children explore a different nature theme each month. They will touch, smell, hear and see many aspects of the natural world! Register in advance at a discounted rate or pay the drop-in fee at the door the day of class. Please dress your child for the weather and exploring outdoors. This is a drop-off class.

Maples Madness: Sweet Treats @ Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve, Rochester Hills

Saturday, March 14

Maple sugaring season is one of our favorite times of year at Dinosaur Hill. This program focuses on the sweeter side of maple sugaring and will also include a tapping demonstration. We’ll find out how sap goes from tree to syrup to candy…yum. We will have sweet treats to sample too of course!

Maple Sugaring: Sweet Science @ Indian Springs Metropark, White Lake

March 14 & 21

Watch how water moves from the “ground floor” to the top of maple trees, explore the chemistry of different sugar solutions and test your sweet tooth with syrup tasting, watch a viscosity race, and much more. After investigating science in the lab, take a journey out to the woods to see the tapped maple trees and the sap boiling in progress.

Maple Syrup Festival @ Burgess-Shadbush Nature Center, Shelby Township

Saturday, March 21

Move through one of our Maple Syrup Festival’s four scheduled program tours. You’ll discover and discuss the way we create one of everyone’s favorite pancake toppings. We cover how sugar gets into the tree, how to recognize and tap maples for their sap, and move fireside to warm up and learn the boildown process. Taste some of the nature center’s warm, tasty syrup and sample maple candy.

Maple Sugaring @ Cass Benton Park, Northville

Saturday, March 21

Learn the history of maple sugaring, see a tree tapped, watch sap cooking in our evaporator. Pre-registration by calling the park office at 734-261-1990 is necessary before the program, as space is limited. No refunds given unless the county cancels the program. Dress for the weather as this program is entirely outdoors. Wear boots as trail is often muddy, and trail is not stroller friendly

Maple Sugaring @ Stony Creek Metropark, Shelby Township 

Saturdays in March

March is sugaring month!  Learn the history of sugaring and how to identify maple trees.  Join us for a guided hike into the spring woods to tap a maple tree.  Afterwards, return to the campfire and learn the process of boiling the sap into rich maple syrup, see it first hand and enjoy a sweet treat!

Maple Sugaring Through the Ages @ Oakwoods Metropark, New Boston

Saturdays in March

Come see the methods used to collect maple sap and learn how the maple tree helped sustain early Americans during this fun program. We will begin indoors learning about the history of maple sugaring, and getting a taste of pure maple syrup, before heading outside to visit three sugaring “camps.”

Journey to the Sugarbash @ Hudson Mills Metropark, Dexter

Multiple dates in March

Take a journey to the sugarbush and experience how maple syrup has been made over the years. Tap a tree, and then see the sap being boiled into syrup. There is no better way to finish out the cold days of winter and get ready for spring. After the program, stay and enjoy an all-you-can-eat pancake and sausage breakfast for an additional charge

Maple Sweetness @ Wolcott Mill Metropark, Ray

Multiple dates in March

It’s maple syrup season!  Join us for Maple Sweetness and learn how to identify and tap maple trees. Then visit a wood-fired evaporator and discover how maple sap becomes maple syrup.  There will be syrup taste-testing and a sweet treat after the program.

Making Maple Syrup Tour @ Maybury Farm, Northville

Saturdays & Sundays in March

Come on out to Maybury Farm and spend the day learning how maple syrup is made! Your tour begins with a wagon ride out to the Sugar Bush where you will learn about the maple tree, how to tap it, and then collect the sap. You can even taste the sap straight from the tree! Once your tour is finished, you are invited to warm up in the Maybury Farm General Store where hot drinks and snacks are available to enjoy next to the toasty wood stove. Don’t miss out!

Photo credit: Facebook

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