Going with the flow from sap to syrup
Maple trees collect all the food they'll need for the winter during the summer and then shed their leaves. When spring comes, the sap starts moving through the tree to give it the energy to sprout new buds. A little of that sap can be drained away and processed to create maple syrup.
Maple tapping was a spring tradition for Native Americans and European settlers, and local nature preserves and museums give families the chance to learn more about the history and making of maple syrup and sample some of the sweet stuff that's as fresh as it gets.
Get Sticky! Maple Syrup Sundays: Fullersburg Woods Nature Education Center, 3609 Spring Road, Oak Brook, (630) 850-8110; dupageforest.comTime: noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays, March 13 and 20Price: Free
Volunteers and staff lead tours every 20 minutes, discussing how maple syrup is made, including why we collect sap from maple trees, how it's done and how syrup was made in the past. During the 45-minute walk, visitors can watch the sap cook over an open fire, see how it changes colors and try a taste of syrup made at the education center.
#8220;They can see the whole process,#8221; said naturalist David Andrusyk.
Maple Sugaring at Kline Creek Farm: 1N600 County Farm Road, West Chicago, (630) 876-5900; dupageforest.comTime: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 12-13Price: Free
Learn how 1890s farm families collected and cooked sap to create maple syrup. Visitors can try the old-fashioned methods of tree tapping and taste some syrup.
Maple Sugaring Days at Naper Settlement: 523 S. Webster St., Naperville, (630) 420-6010; napersettlement.museumTime: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 12, and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 13Price: $9; $8 for seniors; $6.50 for kids ages 4-17
Naper Settlement has been offering Maple Sugaring Days for more than a decade, bringing out between 300 and 400 visitors over the course of the weekend.
#8220;It's a way to celebrate spring,#8221; said Donna DeFalco, marketing and sales representative. #8220;That's what the pioneers used to do as well. The community would come together after the long winters and make maple syrup.#8221;
Interpreters in period costumes explain how the trees are tapped in an environmentally friendly way to avoid injuring them. Visitors can watch gallons of sap boiled down inside the fort, try a free maple syrup snow cone and take home a book of recipes that include maple syrup. The event includes live music and a dancing demonstration and visitors can also participate in Naper Settlement's regular lineup of hands-on activities including corn and coffee grinding.
Maple Syrup Festival at North Park Village Nature Center: 5801 N. Pulaski Road, Chicago, (312) 744-5472; chicagoparkdistrict.comTime: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 26-27Price: Free
More than 1,000 elementary schoolchildren and families from throughout Chicago visited North Park Village Nature Center in February and helped tap about 50 of the nature preserve's trees to create maple syrup for the annual event. At the Maple Syrup Festival, families can try tapping a tree, take a guided nature walk, work on a craft, watch the sap boil, try some fresh maple syrup and listen to live music from the Giving Tree Band.
Maple Tapping Time at the Morton Arboretum: 4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle; (630) 719-2468; mortonarb.orgTime: 10 a.m. to noon Sundays March 13, 20 and 27Price: $20
Visitors to the second annual event learn how to recognize a maple tree and tell if a tree is ready to be tapped. They can try sap as it comes out of a tree, which looks and tastes like water. They'll then move inside to see the cooking process and try partially cooked sap and 100 percent maple syrup.
#8220;We're all about trees so we figured it's a good program,#8221; said Angelique Dunning, associate manager of youth and family programs. #8220;It's a great time to be outside.#8221;
Pioneer Festival Pancake Breakfast at Pilcher Park Nature Center: 2501 Highland Park Drive, Joliet, (815) 741-7277; jolietpark.orgTime: 8 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday, March 26-27Price: $9; $7 for kids under age 12
Joliet's Pioneer Festival has been going on for 12 years and the pancake breakfast has been a tradition since the '70s. The event brings out around 1,500 people over two days, so make sure to get your tickets in advance. The nature center's back yard is transformed into a pioneer encampment and kids learn how to do pioneer chores like churning butter and fetching water from the creek to wash clothes. Visitors will also get to taste 100 percent maple syrup over pancakes and sausage and use it to make maple syrup ice cream. Costumed interpreters teach class in a one-room schoolhouse and demonstrate blacksmithing and maple syrup making.
#8220;The most exciting part is learning how maple syrup is made,#8221; said Debbie Greene, superintendent of the Joliet Park District. #8220;We show you how to make maple syrup the Native American way, the pioneer way and the modern way.#8221;