Photo credit: OSV

STURBRIDGE, Mass. - Buckets on maple trees are the quintessential signposts of a New England spring, and Old Sturbridge Village highlights the history and practice of this regional tradition during its annual Maple Days, being held Saturdays and Sundays throughout March.

Village costumed historians will offer a comprehensive look at maple sugaring and its place in early American life, from stories about the Native American origins of maple sugaring to demonstrations of maple sap processing and foods cooked with the resulting maple sugar.

The weekends kick off on Saturday, March 3 and run through the last Sunday of the month on March 25. Each weekend, interpreters in the Village’s working sugar camp will show off maple sugaring as it was done in in early 19th-century rural New England. They’ll demonstrate the entire sugar-making process, from tapping the trees to "sugaring off," and explain why maple sugar was instead of used than maple syrup in early New England.

Costumed historians will also prepare 19th-century recipes made with maple products by the hearth at the Village’s Freeman Farm. A special attraction for the first two weekends on March 3 and 4 and March 10 and 11 is the return of “Indian Doctress” Molly Geet, portrayed by Native American expert Marge Bruchac, who is of Abenaki Indian descent.

In character as “Molly Geet,” she will tell Native American maple sugaring stories and lead a “Walk with the Indian Doctress” around the Village. Her tales, “Sogalikiosos: Maple Sugar Moon Stories” and “Fur Mittens and Showshoes,” illustrate how maple sugaring is one of the rare American agricultural processes that was not an import from European colonial methods, but rather was indigenous to the North American continent and was taught to European settlers by the Algonquin and Iroquois tribes. Maple sugaring was a rich and essential part of American life in the 18th and 19th centuries and is part of the seasonal rhythm of early New England life portrayed at Old Sturbridge Village.

It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that deforestation of farmland throughout New England reduced large-scale sugaring operations. Old Sturbridge Village celebrates New England life in the 1830s and is open year-round. Winter hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Wed.–Sun., and all Mon. holidays. Admission: adults $24; seniors $22; children 3-17, $8; children 2 and under, free. All programs are subject to change. Each admission includes free parking and a free second-day visit within 10 days. Woo Card subscribers get $5 off adult daytime admission; college Woo cardholders receive $12 off adult daytime admission. For times and details of all OSV activities visit: www.osv.org or call 1-800-SEE-1830.