The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY is celebrating all things maple each weekend in March. Visitors can tour the sugar shack, try the maple quest, taste some maple treats, and take part in special programming to celebrate the maple sugaring season.
The Wild Center will be producing its own maple syrup with the help of the greater Tupper Lake community. Inside its fully operational sugar shack, guests can watch how the sweet sap of trees becomes the highlight of a pancake breakfast. Those who complete the maple-themed scavenger hunt will be entered into a drawing to win a variety of Wild Center prizes. Maple-themed Lunchtime Lives and other digital programs will also be available to the public.
NYS Maple Weekends take place on March 19th-20th and 26th-27th. Maple Weekends showcase the maple products that are made in New York State, and is the best time to visit the various sugar shacks throughout the region.
Those in Tupper Lake can join The Wild Center’s Community Maple Project – an education program and one of the first-of-its kind in the state – for backyard tapping and maple production. Community members are invited to pick up all necessary tapping equipment free of charge at the Wild Center, tap maple trees in their yards and when the sap begins to flow, coordinate collection with a Wild Center representative daily during the sugaring season. Once returned to The Wild Center, the sap will be boiled down into maple syrup. Participating community members will receive 70% of the finished product (pure maple syrup) from the sap they provide (typically 40 gallons of sap equals 1 gallon of maple syrup, or a ½ gallon of pure maple syrup to a supplier). Those interested in project can reach out to Shannon Surdyk at ssurdyk@wildcenter.org or (518) 359-7800.
For more information, visit the Wild Center’s website.
Photo of sugar shack provided by the Wild Center.
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