Two Down...One to Go (with update on our OPEN HOUSE plans)

If I summed up this weekends’ Festival in one word, it would be MUDDY.

photo by Jared Phillips - mud puddles!! 

The weather this week has been crazy. We had a storm come through the
area on Wednesday/Thursday and the weathermen couldn’t tell if it was
going to be rain, snow, sleet, or Godzilla. Some were calling for 24+
inches of snow or 2 inches of snow. We ended up getting 2 inches of
rain on Wednesday. After the rain came through, the temperatures
dropped to -3* and we got 5 inches of snow. After the snow came
through, the temperatures warmed back up to the mid 40s and the
temperatures will be above 60 by the end of the week. Welcome to
Indiana.

Due to the weather, there was mud EVERYWHERE. Parking was muddy, the
grounds were muddy, the mud was tracked into the store, even I was
muddy. The parking guys did a great job pushing/pulling everyone out
that needed assistance and I saw a lot of kids thoroughly enjoying
stomping in mud puddles.

Mason enjoyed the mud!!!

We had a hard freeze Friday night and everything was frozen solid on
Saturday morning. Parking held up fairly well until the temperatures
rose above freezing, at which time the parking lots quickly
deteriorated into a mud pit. It froze again on Saturday night, but it
only improved the parking from a mud bog to a slightly frozen mud bog.

Before....Friday evening.

After - SATURDAY 

Everyone always asks us why we don’t gravel or pave our farm and
parking areas. Well, first of all, it’s a farm and the fields you park
in at the festival are our hay fields in the summer. Secondly, it is
also not financially responsible to gravel or pave our entire farm for
a 4 day festival. We lay a large amount of straw, gravel the main
drive, and gravel the entrance/exit lanes in the parking area, but the
mud just consumes everything we put on the ground. Lastly, call me
crazy, but it wouldn’t be the Maple Syrup Festival without the mud. I
know it’s hard to park, but where else do you get the chance to see an
operating maple syrup farm and stomp in some mud puddles?

Future syrup farmer in the making!!

Minus the mud, the festival ran smoothly this weekend. We were up late
boiling and bottling syrup several nights, but no 1:30am trips to
Wal-Mart this weekend!! We did run out of syrup on Saturday afternoon.
We made more during the day on Saturday and overnight from
Saturday/Sunday, and quickly ran out again on Sunday afternoon. People
seemed to be fairly patient.

We are actively producing syrup this week and expect to make a large
quantity within the next 3-4 days. We do expect our season to be over
by the end of the week, unless we get a freeze at night one day this
week. Several days above freezing usually causes the trees to bud out
very quickly with all of the moisture in the ground.

Due to the crazy weather and the shortage of syrup in plastic
containers this past weekend, we are opening the farm for a third
weekend on March 14th and 15th. We will be open from 9am-5pm both
days. Our open house will feature many of our vendors, syrup available
in the store, pancakes and waffles served all day, and maple BBQ pork
available for lunch and dinner. We will have the Children’s Activity
Center open for coloring and dress up activities. Our horse drawn
wagon rides will be available on Saturday only.

We WILL NOT be offering our maple BBQ chicken, branding irons, candle
making activity, straw maze, maple tea, or running our evaporator
(unless we get a hard freeze this week, which is not expected).

We will be posting a complete list of activities later in the week
once we get everyone scheduled. Please send us an email
(sugrbush@wcrtc.net) or call (812-967-4491) if you have any
questions!!