Connecticut Travel

Driving through the Litchfield Hills in March you can’t help but notice the network of plastic tubes and buckets that collect sap from maple trees. The sugaring off process resulting in the golden deliciousness we know as maple syrup has a long history in New England. The timing for sugaring is critical and only happens once a year because when the maple trees start to bud, the sap becomes bitter. Today collecting and boiling down sap is a labor-intensive process even with all the advantages of modern technology. Native Americans were experts at collecting the sap and boiling it down using the most basic techniques and materials collected from the environment that they lived in. They found many uses for maple syrup from making medicine taste better and sweetening food to using it as a preservative.

Historic records indicate that the collecting and processing of maple sap was a social as well as a working occasion. Women would tap the trees; men would cut the wood for the fire needed to boil the sap, and children tended to the sap as it boiled. The Maple Sugar Festival at the Institute for American Indian Studies located on 38 Curtis Road in Washington, Connecticut is the perfect event for learning, socializing, and celebrating maple sugar as the first sign of spring. The Maple Sugar Festival will be held this year on March 9 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Institute. Visitors are invited to join the staff along with nationally recognized Primitive Technologists, Jeff and Judy Kalin in the outdoor Algonquian Village for an afternoon celebrating the gift of maple syrup.

The Kalins will demonstrate the traditional technique of collecting sap using only stone and wooden tools. Stone was used because pottery or wood containers alone would not have been able to withstand the direct heat. The key to how water was evaporated from the sap using only natural means will be a highlight of the Kalin’s demonstration. They will also talk about the importance of maple sugar to the diet of Native Americans as well as its usefulness as an item of trade.

An added sweet bonus of this event is the “made from scratch” pancakes served up with local maple syrup, coffee, and orange juice. The Maple Syrup Demonstration is noon – 3 pm., the Pancake Brunch is 11 am – 2 pm and children’s activities are 11:30 am – 2:30 pm. The cost is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, children are $10 and members of the museum $5.

About Primitive Technologies

PTI has built nearly 200 aboriginal structures both free standing and congregated in villages using only the tools and practices of the time such as stone axes, flaked hand tools, and fire. In his work, Jeff Kalin, owner of PTI uses only primitive tools that he has made himself.

PTI has created the village at the American Indian Archeological Institute in the style of the Eastern Woodland Indians. This reconstructed village was created to look, as it would have in the 16th century prior to European contact. There are several wigwams and a longhouse in the village. The structures are covered in thatch or bark.

Mr. Kalin is recognized as an expert in stone tool replication and is a consultant to museum curators and archeologists in the analysis of artifacts. He has constructed prehistoric sets for filmmakers and his wood-fired replica pottery hand built from river clay is in private and public collections

About The Institute for American Indian Studies

The Institute for American Indian Studies preserves and educates through discovery and creativity the diverse traditions, vitality, and knowledge of Native American cultures. Through archaeology, the IAIS is able to build new understandings of the world and history of Native Americans, the focus is on stewardship and preservation. This is achieved through workshops, special events, and education for students of all ages.

Located on 15 woodland acres the IAIS has an outdoor Three Sisters and Healing Plants Gardens as well as a replicated 16th c. Algonkian Village. Inside the museum, authentic artifacts are displayed in permanent, semi-permanent and temporary exhibits from prehistory to the present that allows visitors a walk through time.

The Institute for American Indian Studies is located on 38 Curtis Road in Washington Connecticut and can be reached online or by calling 860-868-0518.

Once again this year the Stamford Museum and Nature Center is hosting the 8th annual Maple Sugar Festival in their new Maple Sugar House and Farmhouse from 11 am to 3 pm on March 9 and 10.  Join staff as they make their own line of maple syrup from the 200+ mature maple trees found here on our 118-acre facility. They are just one of only two official maple sugar producers in Fairfield County! 

Guests are invited to the Farmhouse Sunday Pancake Brunch for stacks of hot off the griddle pancakes drizzled with warm “maple gold” made right at the Nature Center.  Guest will also enjoy a host of fun family activities including face painting, arts and crafts, live music, and of course a visit to the Center’s Heckscher Farm animals and Heckscher’s WILD creatures! 

Another highlight of this event is to sample a delectable array of original Maple Sugar-inspired treats prepared by talented aspiring chefs at our Teen Chef Challenge on Saturday in the Farmhouse – and vote for your favorite!  And, don’t forget to purchase the freshly tapped Stamford Museum & Nature Center maple syrup that can be enjoyed long after this event is over.

The cost of this event is $6 for members and $12 per person for non-members; the farmhouse pancake brunch on Sunday from 11 am to 2 pm is an additional $6 per person.

It is getting to be that sweet time of year and the Great Mountain Forest Sugar House located on 201 Windrow Road in Norfolk is open on Feb. 23 from 1 pm to 4 pm for free tours. Learn how sap is boiled down to make maple syrup. The weather needs to cooperate for the sap to run (freezing nights, warm days) so check the Weekend in Norfolk Events Page for updates or call the forestry office (860-542-5422) before going.

If the sugar house is open, the syrup will be for sale and we will be offering half-gallon jugs for the special price of $35, just during Weekend in Norfolk (until we sell out).

On March 2 there will be a discussion at the Norfolk Library on 9 Greenwoods Road in Norfolk at 4 p.m. by Hans M. Carlson, PhD., Executive Director of Blue Hill Heritage Trust in Downeast Maine, and former Director of Great Mountain Forest. Carlson will read from and discuss his newest book, Walking Toward Moosalamoo, a story of humans and the earth, as well as a chronicle of backpacking on the Appalachian Trail, from Mount Katahdin to a place called Mount Moosalamoo. At bottom, this book is an environmental inquiry into the dialog between humans and the land, one concerned with our current environmental crises, but also with the historical and cultural terrain of New England. Carlson will also discuss New England land conservation in the context of culture and history.

It’s the perfect winter celebration: outdoor sports; a tour of stained glass windows, a brunch crawl, and a pancake breakfast; concerts and art shows; kids’ activities, tours, and open houses, ice carving, tea tasting, a look at the stars, and much more will be featured during Norfolk’s Second WINter Weekend, Saturday and Sunday, February 24 and 25. What’s even better, most of the events are free.

Event Highlights

Music and art will be strongly represented. The Doobie Others Band will perform at Infinity Hall Saturday night at 8 p.m. and, early birds take note, Will Evans of Barefoot Truth will be at Infinity on Friday evening. For classical music lovers, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival is sponsoring a free performance, Music among Friends, with composer Krists Auznieks and the Yale School of Music Piano Quintet in the library on Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3:30 p.m. And the library plans fun entertainment for the whole family by hosting the Traveling Lantern Theater Puppet Show on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., free of charge.

As for art, there is a show by painter Victor Leger at the library on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. The Norfolk Artisans Guild is hosting a variety of artisan demonstrations and an art show by watercolorist Pamela Harnois from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Norfolk Historical Society will be open with a fabulous display of work by 19th-century photographer Marie Kendall on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. New this year at the Norfolk Hub in the center of town, will be video showings of Haystack Book Talks on Saturday at 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 2 p.m.; the videos will run again on Sunday at 12 noon and 1:30 p.m. Another highlight offered at the Hub is a demonstration on how to make handmade art journals by Leslie Watkins on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Revelers won’t go hungry. Don’t miss out on all the goodies at the indoor Farmers Market, inside Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. The Norfolk volunteer ambulance squad will serve up hot cider and donuts free of charge on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Great Mountain Forest will open its sugar shack on Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon to 4 p.m., Mother Nature permitting. The restaurants in Norfolk have organized a brunch crawl, the Manor House Inn will host a Murder Mystery on Sunday evening from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Mountain View Green Retreat will offer visitors tea, food tastings and mini spa services on Sunday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Immaculate Conception Church will host a free pancake breakfast on Sunday. And, of course, sit-down meals will be readily available at almost any time of day.

A perennial favorite of WINter Weekend are the tours offered by the Norfolk Curling Club that will have an open House on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. If you like stained glass, don’t miss the stained glass window tours of Church of Christ on Saturday and Sunday. The tours of these beautiful stained glass windows by Tiffany and Armstrong begin on Saturday and run on the hour from 10 am to 3 pm and on Sunday from 12 noon to 3 p.m. Immaculate Conception Church will also have docents on hand each day to talk about its own gorgeous stained glass.

Interested in sports? There will be plenty—skating on the town ice rink with lessons on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., there is all day cross-country skiing, hiking and snowshoeing on one of Norfolk’s many trails including the beautiful North Brook Trail and sledding for all ages on the hill behind the Congregational Church on the green (bring your own sled). There will be an owl prowl from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. and then a wildlife walk on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, both at Aton Forest. New this year is the Astronomy Night on Saturday from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. for a look at the winter constellations, complete with a bonfire and hot chocolate to take the chill out of the air. To round things out, the Norfolk Land Trust is hosting a slide talk on wolf trees by Michael Gaige at the Norfolk Library from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

To see a full schedule of events and times, go to weekendinnorfolk call 860-542-5829. For updates, follow Weekend in Norfolk on Facebook. And save the date: the annual Weekend in Norfolk is coming up August 2, 3 and 4, 2019, for three days of summer fun.

On February 28 from 6:30 pm to 8 pm the Bartlett Arboretum in Stamford is welcoming author Victoria Johnson for a lecture and book signing. “American Eden” – the untold story of Hamilton’s. and Burr’s personal physician, whose dream to build America’s first botanical garden inspired the young Republic.

About the Book
When Dr. David Hosack tilled the country’s first public botanical garden in the Manhattan soil more than two hundred years ago, he didn’t just dramatically alter the New York landscape; he left a monumental legacy of advocacy for public health and wide-ranging support for the sciences. A charismatic dreamer admired by the likes of Jefferson, Madison, and Humboldt, and intimate friends with both Hamilton and Burr, the Columbia professor devoted his life to inspiring Americans to pursue medicine and botany with a rigor to rival Europe’s. Though he was shoulder-to-shoulder with the founding fathers―and even present at the fatal duel that took Hamilton’s life―Hosack and his story remain unknown. Now, in melodic prose, historian Victoria Johnson eloquently chronicles Hosack’s tireless career to reveal the breadth of his impact. The result is a lush portrait of the man who gave voice to a new, deeply American understanding of the powers and perils of nature.

From the meadows of Manhattan and correspondents around the world, Hosack collected over two thousand species at his twenty-acre botanical garden. He used these plants to conduct some of the first pharmaceutical research in the United States and to experiment with new crops. In his enormous conservatory, Hosack introduced New Yorkers to ornamental flowers, shrubs, and trees from as far away as Japan, Madagascar, and the Cape of Good Hope. He had coffee trees, tamarind trees, and banana trees. Flame lilies, bird-of-paradise flowers, and sweet-scented daphne greeted visitors to his American Eden. Today, Radio City Music Hall sits on the footprint of Hosack’s conservatory. His land is home to Rockefeller Center.

This lecture is free and will be held in the Silver Education Building on the grounds of the Bartlett Arboretum.