by Meg Porter
3/2/2011

Holliston resident and Executive Director Lynda Simkins, of the Natick Community Organic Farm, invites the public to celebrate all things maple syrup at its annual Maple Magic Day, on Saturday, March 5, 2011.

Pancake Breakfast

Festivities begin with the Farm’s annual pancake breakfast in the cafeteria of Memorial School from 8 AM to 11 AM at 107 Eliot Street (Joseph Ailinger Drive) Natick, MA 01760. Breakfast goers are treated to lots of yummy pancakes smothered in NCOF’s own maple syrup while listening to the lively music of The Clambake Five (a.k.a The Silver Leaf Jazz Band). Check out the agricultural demonstrations in the foyer and purchase raffle tickets for a chance to win one of many fabulous raffle prizes. Tickets will be sold at the door at $6 for NCOF members, and $3 for NCOF child members aged 4 to 8. Tickets are $8 for nonmembers, and $4 for nonmember children aged 4 to 8. NCOF memberships may be purchased at the door.

 Maple Sugaring Past and Present

After breakfast, we will head across the road for more sticky fun from 9 AM to 3 PM at the Natick Community Organic Farm Sugar Shack, which is located at the top of the Farm’s driveway at 117 Eliot Street, Natick, MA 01760. Take a maple sugaring tour, learn about Native American and Colonial sugaring techniques, and experience how NCOF boils sap into syrup in its wood-fired evaporator. Lunch of hot soup, cider, and bread and bottles of maple syrup will be available for purchase. Maple Sugaring Tours are $5 per person, or $4 for people who have first attended the pancake breakfast. This event will be held rain or shine.

More Information about Natick Community Organic Farm and Maple Sugaring

Founded in 1974, The Natick Community Organic Farm is a nonprofit, certified-organic farm providing productive open space, farm products, and hands-on education for all ages, year-round. Committed to farming methods that are ecologically healthy and sustainable, the Farm places special emphasis on service to youth through year-round classes, work-experience programs and volunteer opportunities for working the land.

Every February and March, NCOF hangs collecting buckets on hundreds of sugar maple trees throughout Natick, Wellesley, Sherborn and Dover. Sunny days in the 40s (Fahrenheit) and nights below freezing trigger the sap inside the sugar maples to run from the roots up to the buds. The Farm collects this sap with the help of youth and adult volunteers and concentrates it using its wood-fired evaporator. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. The start and length of the sugaring season is entirely weather-dependent, but usually lasts from end of February to the end of March. On average, the Farm produces 150 gallons of maple syrup a year, which it sells to the public to support its farming operation.

 Educational Tours of the NCOF Sugar Shack

Visitors are welcome to stop by the NCOF sugar shack whenever steam is rising from the shack’s roof, a signal that boiling is in progress. Forty-five-minute educational tours of the sugar shack are available to both individuals and groups of up to 20 people throughout the month of March. Educational tours are $6 per person; there is no charge for kids under 4. Advance reservations are required. Tours are conducted Monday through Friday on the hour from 9 AM to 2 PM, and again at 3:30 PM and 4:15 PM. Saturday tours are conducted at 10 AM and 11 AM. Since syrup-making is weather-dependent, NCOF cannot guarantee that it will be boiling on tours. No refunds given.

Please call the Farm to check availability or book a tour for your family or school group call (508) 508-907-6019.