Cayuga Nature Center's Maple Fest - March 23 and 24
Come to the Cayuga Nature Center March 23 and 24 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm to witness how sap becomes sweet maple syrup.
This annual event starts with a delicious pancake feast from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm both days and helps showcase the taste of maple syrup by pouring it on pancakes, sausage, and apple crisp.
Once you are full, work off your meal between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm by checking out the rotating live music, local vendors with homemade goods, hikes and syrup demonstrations along the Sugarbush Trail.
This is one of the most popular events held at the Nature Center, a public education venue of the Paleontological Research Institution. Visitors come from all over New York State to partake in this annual event, which has grown from year to year. Maple syrup is produced nowhere else on Earth, except Northeast America and Canada. Trees can begin to be tapped as early as January, but the main sap flow occurs in March. Ideal sap flow conditions are when the days turn warmer (above 40 degrees) while the nights are still chilly and it can take about 30-50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.
One of the first signs of spring is the tapping of maple trees to collect the sap to make the maple syrup. Celebrate this sign of spring by joining this family-friendly event! Admission is $12 for adults, $7 for children (3-12) and $35 for a family of 5. Member admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children (3-12), and $25 for a family of 5. Children under age 2 or free.
All proceeds benefit the Cayuga Nature Center’s mission and programming.
Past 2013 Highlights
- The History Center's Artistry and Piety: Tiffany Windows and Glass Making in Tompkins County and the Finger Lakes
- Tompkins County Public Library: Legos, Play and Story Times
- Johnson Museum of Art Big Draw
- Cornell Plantations Fall 2013 Lecture Series
- Museum of the Earth's 10th Anniversary
- Guided Bird Walks at the Lab of O
- Raising the Dead at Museum of the Earth
- Sciencenter's Roll, Drop and Bounce
- Summer Shakespeare at Cornell Plantations
- The History Center's Curiosities: Rarities and Oddities from the Collection
- Tompkins County Public Library 2013 Summer Reading
- Cayuga Nature Center Butterfly Garden June 2013
- Museum of the Earth Glacier Exhibit May 2013
- Lab of O Migration Celebration May 2013
- Johnson Museum 60 years of Exhibition Posters
- Nano Days and Hip Hop
- Maple Fest at Cayuga Nature Center
- Sciencenter 30th Celebration
- Spring Exhibition at the Sciencenter
- * 2013 * 2014 * 2015 *