UMaine Museum Offers Maple Syrup Field Trips
Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3756
ORONO –The University of Maine Page Farm and Home Museum will sponsor several events to help celebrate spring, plus provide an enjoyable, entertaining and educational look at an age-old tradition in Maine — making rich, sweet maple syrup.
With Maine being one of the biggest producers of pure maple syrup in the world, Page Farm and Home Museum Director Patricia Henner says the museum events and two field trips to authentic Maine sugaring operations March 25 and 28 are great ways to learn about the process of making maple syrup.
“Sugaring,” as the process is called, is one of New England’s oldest agricultural enterprises and is traditionally the first harvest of the year following winter, Henner says. Hence, the maple syrup season is one of the first cheerful harbingers of warm spring weather.
Sugaring also was first practiced by Native Americans, and learned by colonists and settlers in New England, who referred to maple syrup as Indian sugar or Indian molasses, according to Henner.
On March 25, at 9 a.m., a UMaine van will load up at the Page Farm museum on the Orono campus and head off for Bob’s Sugarhouse, a 50-year-old family-run operation in Dover-Foxcroft — a scenic trip of about 40 miles. A $12 per person fee includes transportation and all tour fees. The tour will also include a visit to Sebec.
On March 28 — officially Maine Maple Sunday — the Page Farm and museum is hosting an afternoon of fun and games for children and a field trip to the University of Maine’s sugaring operation closer to home. The program has a shared mission: a celebration of Maine maple sugaring and historic preservation.
Henner says the non-profit Page Farm and Home Museum celebrates and teaches about sugaring as a historic agricultural activity. The Northeast is the only place in the world where maple syrup and other maple-sugar products are produced commercially, she says.
The trip to Bob’s Sugarhouse includes a close look at a real commercial sugaring operation, from the collection of sap from sugar maple trees and rendered through a series of boiling troughs to the finished product. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of amber syrup, which is used to make dozens of maple-flavored products and sweets popular throughout the world.
“Bob will take our group out to the sugar bush to show us the beginning of the process, and our tour will end in the sugarhouse with a sample of their delicious syrup fresh from the evaporator,” says Henner.
Bob’s is a family-run sugaring business that provides Mainers with a wonderful collection of Maine Maple Syrup and maple products as well as recipes, equipment and related events, Henner says.
The sugarhouse features all grades of pure Maine maple syrup in a wide variety of containers. Bob and his wife Barb Moore specialize in a large assortment of maple products, including creamy maple butter, old-fashioned maple sugar candy, maple granulated sugar, rich maple cream, as well as tasty maple popcorn and rich maple walnut chocolates.
“We’ll lunch at Sebec Village Cafe, which boasts ‘the best cup of coffee by a dam site,’ ” Henner says. “They have daily specials and wonderful desserts. Their standard menu includes sandwiches, soups, salads and much more.”
Lunch is scheduled for Sebec Village Cafe, with prices, ranging from $6 to $8.
After lunch, the group will take a tour of the Sebec Historical Society Museum in a charming one-room schoolhouse not far from the old dam.
The day ends with a guided tour of the Blacksmith Shop Museum, housed in an 1863 blacksmith shop and one of only three original blacksmith shops left in the state. When in operation, it was used to shoe horses, repair farm machinery and make wagon wheels for the farms in the area.
The tour will return to the Page Farm and Home Museum about 4 p.m. Since the tour involves some limited hiking during New England’s traditional mud season, Henner advises people to dress appropriately. Because space is limited pre-registration by March 23 is required. Additional information can be obtained and reservations made by calling the farm and museum at (207) 581-4100.
A video, The Maple Sugaring Story, starting at 1 p.m. on March 28 at the museum on the Orono campus kicks of a slate of activities specifically geared for children.
After the film on sugaring, three groups of children, grouped by grade levels K-6, will play games and hear stories as part of a learning exercise. Henner says the program also will explore some of the Indian legends about maple syrup.
“At 2:30 p.m. we will drive out to the University of Maine maple sugaring operation on College Avenue Extension,” Henner says, where participants will take a guided walking tour of the university’s sugar bush — or maple tree stands, where the maple sugaring story begins — and then tour the sugarhouse and enjoy a sample of fresh maple syrup straight from the evaporator and poured warm over vanilla ice cream.
To cover the costs of materials, the Page Farm, a non-profit educational museum featuring a broad range of household items and farm implements from a bygone era, is asking for a $3 per child reimbursement. Registration information is available by calling the museum at 581-4100. Information about the Page Farm and Home Museum exhibits and purpose can be found on the website.
The museum, one of its kind in the area, reflects the many varied aspects of farming and farm life from 1865 to 1940. Equipment and vehicles having to do with everything from clearing land to harvesting and storing crops are displayed.
Some of the many exhibits include poultry, dairy, 4-H and ice harvesting, in addition to a blacksmith shop, an exhibit by the Orono Historical Society and a novel gift shop located in an old general store setting.
A one-room schoolhouse moved from Holden, Maine, and the Heritage Gardens also are a part of the site.