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Maple Madness (on-site)

Friday, March 22, 2024 |  10:00AM – 2:00PM
Grades 2 – 12.
Brings history, chemistry, math, and ecology to life! Reverse osmosis? Sap to syrup ratios? The importance of maple sugar for the economy of anti-slavery protest? No other field trip has all this in store for your students. This self-guided field trip features both the Nature Center and select locations in the Historic Village. Plan for 2-4 hours on site.

Questions? contact education@gcv.org

Visit the sugar house

Did you know? Part of the Nature Center at GCV&M is a working sugar house, where sap is collected from the Sugar Bush on our grounds and turned into real NY maple syrup!

When you visit the Sugar House during our Maple Sugar Festival you’ll see the modern-day wood-fired evaporator in action, learn how much sap it takes to make one gallon of maple syrup, smell the sweet bubbling sap as it boils down into thick sugary syrup, and more.

Maple products from the Sugar House are available for sale in the Flint Hill Store.

Explore the sugar bush

Journey to the 19th century to see the techniques and tools that early settlers used to collect sap and make maple sugar! Explore the sugar bush and surrounding trails at the Genesee Country Nature Center, where you will learn from costumed historic interpreters how clear sap was boiled down into thick maple syrup and hardened into maple sugar.

Explore a 19th-century sugar camp as you trek through the wintry woods! 

Venture into the Historic Village

Meander in and out of historic homes around the Village and explore 19th-century uses for maple syrup and sugar, and even sample some historic “receipts,” called recipes, today! 

  • Explore all things fried in lard in Jones Farm Kitchen 
  • Smell doughnuts baking in 
  • Learn about sweet treats and maple sugar in the Livingston Backus Kitchen 
  • Delve into maple products as trade goods in the Altay General Store
  • Smoking bacon in the Smoke House
  • Explore candle making in MacKay House 
  • Enjoy Indigenous storytelling and learn about the origins of local maple traditions
  • Learn about ice carving and 19th-century refrigeration in the Ice House behind Hosmer’s Inn
  • Come explore the brewing of maple beer in historic Grieves Brewery 

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