Maple Syrup Festival, 2010

The local Boy Scout Camp, Camp Lazarus, has an annual Maple Syrup Festival at the end of February/beginning of March.  I’ve wanted to go for several years, and we were able to go this year.  Hooray!  In preparation, we’ve been listening to Little House in the Big Woods and managed to get to the chapter, The Sugar Snow, last week before we went to the festival.  The children had some idea of what they would see this way.

As we walked back the trail, we saw buckets hanging from trees and stopped to investigate:

 We first saw the “modern” system with its temperature gauges, computer controls, and wood heated boiler.  The man running it gave interesting explanations of the what and whys.   They didn’t yet have enough sap, so he was boiling water to show how the system works. 

The rest of the festival focused on pioneer-like skills.

Sawing wood:

Drilling:

A Blacksmith was making nails:

for all the children:

They had the different activities spread out, so there was some walking:

We made whistles, watched tomahawk throwing, ate Ham and Beans that were heated in a kettle over the fire and cornbread (a deal, all 5 of us ate for $4.50!), watched rope making, branding wood, and finally the frontier syrup-making:

Here’s some of our loot:

 On the way out, we bought some Maple Candy; the perfect end to the adventure.