Adding Sap

As the March days lengthen, the daytime temperatures finally begin to climb and the promise of spring starts to stir the juices, it’s time for sinzibukwud.

Sinzibukwud?

That’s the Algonquin term — it means drawn from the wood — for maple syrup. It was the Native Americans, primarily the Algonquians and Cree, who developed the process of maple syrup production and taught it to the Europeans.

For those who want to experience what the early settlers learned from their Native American neighbors, Genesee Country Village & Museum’s Genesee Country Nature Center offers Sap, Syrup & Sugar on Sunday March 16, Saturday March 22, and Saturday & Sunday, March 29 & 30.

Bringing in the Buckets

Each day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. visitors may try their hand at tapping a tree or see what it’s like to manage sap buckets on a shoulder yoke. The day includes self-guided walks to the nature center’s sugar bush, 19th-century maple sugaring over an open fire, modern syrup-making demonstrations, tastings and, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., a pancake breakfast with real maple syrup.

Weather permitting, our oxen team of Tom and Mike will be at work with their sap sled and our cooper will also be at the nature center to show how to make wooden sap buckets.

Then join us in the Meeting Center Lounge to complete your own Sugar Passport Puzzle. Have fun as you create toy oxen to take home, learn to stencil maple leaves, judge by taste the varieties of maple syrup and listen to a sweet tale in the “Sugar Bush Story Corner.” There will be a craft in the art gallery and a chance to taste what's cooking—like maple baked beans or maple gingerbread—in Jones Farm and Livingston Backus House. Be prepared, too, to help the cook make a special treat.

On Sunday, Mar 16, there will be wagon rides ($2). Guaranteed fun for the whole family.

	Easter in the Shop

Admission is $6 for adults, $4 for youth ages 4-16. GCV&M members and children 3 and younger are free. The pancake breakfast, which will be served at the Meeting Center, is $6 for adults, $4 youth ages 5-10; and $1 for children 2-4.

Then take time to visit the Flint Hill Shop 10 a.m.-5 p.m. for discounts on Easter Items and special sales on other selected merchandise.