- 3/4/12
-
Maple Sugar Festival
This free, homey, hands-on event offers kids’ activities, plus “tap a tree,” real maple syrup on ice cream, and maple syrup making. Activities are centered at the Barn, Tavern and Stable.
Learn the Colonial methods of sap tapping and try drilling holes with old-fashioned bits and braces. Take maple taste tests, see a DVD on maple sugar activities and shop for delicious Pennsylvania maple products. Visitors can also learn Native American methods for making maple sugar. The Neale family of Aberdeen Mills near Elizabethtown, Pa. will demonstrate with sons Saben and Sawyer how 40 gallons of maple sap is boiled down into 1 gallon of syrup. They have a keen interest in everyday history; their stone grist mill and house date from the 1700s, as well as their stone distillery, now a second house. They raise animals for food & fiber, sell extra produce when available & give group tours.
A family of volunteers, working from the Tavern’s Summer Kitchen, will show how wooden taps known as spiles were once made to allow sap to flow from tree to bucket. They will also explain various methods of tapping trees and collecting sap. Another family will explain maple candy making and give out samples. Free.
Built on a bluff overlooking the Susquehanna River, Fort Hunter Mansion and Park has served as a war fort, a hub for frontier commerce, and an exclusive private estate. Now preserved and open to the public, Fort Hunter Mansion and Park invites you to explore Pennsylvania's rich history.
