National Maple Syrup Festival

What happens the first two weekends in March in the tiny town of Medora, IN? The National Maple Syrup Festival! Last year, we didn't go due to the cold, rainy weather. This year, the second weekend was perfect weather. We spent the day taking in the beautiful scenery during the 2 hour drive and learning about all things Maple.
The festival starts out with a bus ride to the farm. They played a tape of the history of Indiana, the settlers, and the Burtons along with a brief introduction to syrup and sugar.

We pulled up to the farm and were surrounded by maple trees with buckets hanging all around. You see, not much has changed since the native americans processed the deliciously sweet sap hundreds of years ago. Now obviously they didn't have the metal buckets, but same principle.

Our first stop on the walking tour was the settler reenactment.

It was so neat to see how everything was prepared from sap to sugar. It was truly amazing to see how the clear sap turned into a product that was used for not only a sweetener, but also as a means of preservation in the days before refrigeration. We even got to sample the sugar they had worked so hard for the day before.

After the tour, we had certainly worked up an appetite. Off to the food tent!

Pancakes with lots of ooey gooey syrup and sausage, yum! Didn't want breakfast? No problem! They also have a pork chop dinner consisting of 2 barbecue/maple syrup chops, potatoes, maple ham and beans, and a roll. Amazing!!
There were tons of kids activities as well. If you haven't made it down before, be sure to check it out next year. It's always the first two weekends of March. A great time for the whole family to learn about a great Indiana product and see history in action.

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