Maple Syrup Festival Returns to Fenner This Weekend

All photos courtesy of Dave Marvin

This weekend, Fenner Conservancy welcomes visitors to join them for the 45^th Maple Syrup Festival at Fenner Park. The event will take place from 11:00AM - 5:00PM on Saturday, March 16^th, 2019.

Both the Maple Syrup Festival and Fenner Nature Center are managed and operated by Fenner Conservancy, a 501(c)3 non-profit.

The festival will feature three primary locations with live action demonstrations, learning opportunities, and options to buy food and merchandise.

To learn about tree tapping, maple syrup distilling, and forestry management visitors can take the paved Sugar Bush Trail, where live tree tapping, cooking of fresh maple syrup, and other syrup-related activities will be demonstrated. There will also be opportunities to learn from representatives of MSU’s Department of Forestry about the importance of forestry management and how both the forest and maple syrup production benefits from the introduction of new saplings.

Those looking to buy a bag of maple syrup cotton candy, maple creme candy, or bottles of maple syrup will find these and other products for sale on both the upper and lower floors of the Monarch Building.

On the first floor, event volunteers will be spinning fresh maple cotton candy from the wheel and bagging the supplies for purchase, and there will be a live demonstration of maple cream candy making.

In addition to these offerings on the upper floor, visitors are more than welcomed to visit the Explorer’s Store just past the stairs going down to the lower floor. The Fenner Welcome Table, located just inside the entrance to the Monarch Building, will have staff and volunteers ready to answer questions about the event, Fenner membership options, and other general questions.

Fenner’s maple syrup and other concessions will be for sale on the lower floor of the Monarch Building. They will also be offering sweet maple leaf cookies and new products including maple tea, maple BBQ sauce, and maple mustard.

Just east of the Monarch Building, “Chris Cakes” will be flipping as part of an all-you-can-eat buffet of pancakes, sausage, fresh maple syrup, orange juice, and coffee. Admission to the buffet is $8 per plate for ages 3 years and up. Ages below 3 years old can eat for free.

Parking will be offered onsite with a suggested donation of $5 per car. All proceeds from the parking and pancake buffet will be used to help the Fenner Conservancy’s outreach and park services.

If Fenner’s parking lot becomes full, there will be overflow parking made available just down the road at Crego Park, located at: 1600 Fidelity Road. Dean Transportation is offering free shuttle assistance to all visitors parking in the Crego Park overflow parking lot on a continues cycle.

Those interested in volunteering for this event can find the volunteer form here.

Fenner Nature Center is located at 2020 East Mt. Hope Avenue, Lansing, 48910.