Maple Syrup Fest

More than 2,000 people attended Maple Syrup Fest at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center March 25, the largest Maple Syrup Fest to date! Activity stations throughout ALNC grounds led visitors through the history of maple syruping, creating hands-on activities for participants, who also watched cooking demonstrations of methods used by Native Americans, pioneers, and people today to produce maple syrup. Naturalists tapped maple trees on ALNC’s grounds, collected sap in buckets, and boiled the sap over a roaring fire to concentrate it into “liquid gold.” Visitors were able to taste real maple tree sap; learn how to identify different types of maple trees; test their smarts with nature trivia; tour the Children’s Shack; take part in cooking demonstrations with early pioneer settlers; and enjoy ice cream topped with pure maple syrup. (For information on getting your event featured in the IB Gallery, email jason@ibmadison.com.)