Maple Open House Recap

by Cara Davenport, Education Manager

On Saturday, March 25th, under windy gray skies that later turned into freezing rain and snow, over 200 gritty and enthusiastic staff, volunteers, and visitors of all ages were at Merck Forest for Maple Open House to celebrate the sugaring season. Although the day was cold and windy, we had everything we needed for a good time- cheerful people, warm syrup, and a firm access road!

Formerly known as the Merck Forest Pancake Breakfast, this was our second year running this event since the pandemic pause. Although the pancakes have been left out in this new iteration of Merck’s maple celebration, there were still many ways that families, home-scale sugarmakers, and maple fans had a chance to enjoy and experience sugaring and maple syrup. The event incorporated activities, demonstrations, and of course samples of syrup right off of both our big evaporator and our home-scale evaporator.

A huge thank you to all the volunteers and helpers who made this event possible-

Rupert Volunteer Fire Department and Jean Ceglowski, William Daly, Justin Jansson, Jim Hand, Greg Hopper, Jennifer Lourie, Mark Lourie, Teddy Marthage, Brady Moffitt, Elizabeth Novak, Jill Perry-Balzano, Charles Smith, Amelia Stock, and Lynn Vail