Gather around the fire and watch the maple sap boil

MILLBROOK VILLAGE — Celebrate the approach of warmer weather with the North American tradition of maple sugaring at Millbrook Village on Saturday, March 19.

The sugar maples are tapped and the sap is flowing. See how the “mud season harvest” is transformed from sap to sweet maple sugar. North America’s Native American Indians taught the colonists how to make maple sugar long before the first European honey bees were brought to the new world or the first sugar cane or sorghum was planted in the South. A truly North American tradition and an early necessity and industry, maple sugaring will be demonstrated as it was done years ago, along with other activities.

Does thunder chase the sap back into the ground? What makes the sap rise? Why don’t you “stir the pot” when the sap is being cooked down? What is a “sugarbush”? Bring your questions and your curiosity to Millbrook Village. Gather around the fire and watch the sap boil down, enjoy the company, meet a friend, and enjoy the day. Visit to the general store, the wagon shop or the Trauger House to see what’s going on.

It’s all free, presented by the National Park Service and volunteers from the Millbrook Village Society.

Millbrook Village is located in New Jersey at the intersection of Old Mine Road (12 miles north of Interstate 80 from Exit 1 in New Jersey) and Route 602 (seven miles west of Blairstown, N.J.).

For more information, call park headquarters at 570-426-2452, Monday through Friday, or visit nps.gov.