Celebrate the end of winter and taste the coming of spring!
It has been a very long winter and a sure sign of spring is the melting snow, mounds of mud, and the sound of sap dripping into buckets! It’s time for the annual (free) Hurry Hill Maple Farm and Maple Museum 12th Annual Taste & Tour Saturday & Sunday March 14 & 15, 2015 10 am – 4 pm.
Edinboro author Virginia Sorensen once said “Edinboro, old-timers told us with an odd, fierce pride, had the worst winters in the world. The name the Indians had left in the valley, Conneautee, meant ‘Land of Lingering Snow.’”
Hurry Hill Maple Farm, 11424 Fry Road in Edinboro, will open its sugarhouse and maple museum for visitors to see the boiling process of how maple sap is turned into delicious PA Pure Maple Syrup. Young and old can see, touch, taste and listen to the past while learning about an important part of Pennsylvania’s agricultural heritage. And what makes good syrup? Mud and snow! Warming days and cold nights.
The Maple Farm Museum features many “Tree to Table” exhibits, sugaring antiques, maple production displays, and hands-on activities for kids. A highlight of the Museum is an exhibit honoring Virginia Sorensen, author of the Newbery award-winning book Miracles on Maple Hill written in Edinboro about making maple syrup. New this year are many photos of Harry-the-Hermit, a large wooden chain he carved, and his carving tool box. Visitors can also hold the actual Newbery award medal that Miracles received.
If you have good boots and an adventurous spirit, you can go out to the sugarhouse where the season of “mud and snow” make good maple syrup! Mother Nature is always in the woods and telling stories. Visitors can bring smart phones to listen to the self-guided, text and audio tour to the sugarhouse! If it is too cold to venture out, you can take the Walking tour to the sugarhouse from home at hurryhillfarm.org!
The Boy Scouts’ have an exhibit on how Native Americans and early settlers made maple syrup. The Eagle Scout Adirondack Shelter highlights huge iron kettles used by colonists for boiling sap.
The Museum’s Maple Tasting Room will feature free maple hot chocolate for visitors. You can munch on maple hot dogs. Kirk Johnson Honey and Conneautee Creamery Cheese will have a sampling table. And for a donation, visitors can sample a plate of maple products in the Maple Tasting Room.
The Museum Farm Stand has PA Preferred Blue Ribbon products available to eat or take home: pure maple syrup, maple BBQ sauce, mustard, cream, candy, sugar crumb, peanuts, pancake mix, suckers, popcorn, cookies, and even maple lip balm!
The Pennsylvania Hardwood Council has its brand new WOODMOBILE coming to Hurry Hill Maple Farm during the tour. Visitors will learn the story of PENNS Woods and view educational exhibits about our state and its exceptional hardwood export industry.
If you miss the Taste and Tour, you can still visit the Hurry Hill Maple Museum every Sunday 2 – 5 pm until the end of May.