Maple Sugaring in the Litchfield Hills

Visit local sugarhouses and taste the sweetness of locally made products during the annual two-day celebration of all things maple in 2026. Many sugarhouses across the state will be open for tours and demonstrations in addition to selling their wonderful products. It’s a great opportunity to learn about the age old process of collecting maple sap and turning it into delicious syrup, candy, fudge, confections, and more!

The annual Maple Sugaring Demonstration & Pancake Breakfast is typically held at Indian Rock Nature Preserve in late February or early March. Enjoy pancakes with pure maple syrup, see outdoor maple sugaring demonstrations and learn how to identify a sugar maple – even try your hand at tapping a tree. Learn about the different methods Native Americans and colonists used to collect and boil sap to make maple syrup and sugar. 

 Sweet Wind Farm in East Hartland hosts its Maple Festival on the second Saturday in March every year. Enjoy classes, narrated tours, and live demonstrations of tree tapping and sap boiling plus live music, pancakes with maple syrup, and more. Maple products are available to sample and purchase.

Brookside Farm II in Litchfield is a relatively small but very high-quality maple syrup operation, owned by Mark Harran and Kay Carroll since 1999. Each year, they produce about 250 gallons of maple syrup, with a production process that yields 100% pure and basically 100% organic maple syrup. Visitors are welcome (just call ahead). Mark and Kay enjoy teaching folks of all ages how maple syrup is made and the differences in the four grades of syrup. A tour includes a tasting and recipe suggestions.  

Nestled in the woods 100 yards from the entrance to the Fleming Preserve at the Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust in Woodbury stands The Old Sap House, where the Flanders maple syrup tradition began, today drawing about 1,000 visitors each spring. As the demands on the Sap House grew and the aging equipment sagged under the weight of time and use, a new Sugar House was built on the Van Vleck Farm and Nature Sanctuary, and this is where all current maple syrup making takes place. Flanders welcomes small groups to reserve a time to visit the Sugar House as staff and volunteers demonstrate the maple sugar-making process of turning sap into syrup with an entertaining mix of science and humorous storytelling. 

“Making the world a sweeter place, one drip at a time,” the Sugar Shed at The Farm in Woodbury started up in 1982 as a backyard maple syrup-making hobby. Since then, they have grown to produce hundreds of gallons of fine quality maple syrup every year, in addition to many other NON-GMO agricultural products cultivated using old fashioned values and cutting edge technology, providing a new farm experience like no other. 

Family-owned Lamothe’s Sugar House in Burlington is Connecticut’s largest maple sugar house, with an incredible 5,500 taps and 26 miles of tubing to collect the sap. Learn how maple syrup is made and then pick some up from their country store that also sells maple sugar, jams, honey and more. 

The Sharon Audubon Center typically hosts a Maple Fest open house and Maple Bake Sale with baked goods and treats every March. Learn how sap is collected from the trees, how it's turned into maple syrup, and how syrup was made "back in the day," while tasting fresh syrup in the sugarhouse.

The Plymouth Maple Festival is typically held every March, a celebration of one of Connecticut's first agricultural products. Visitors can learn the sugaring process, sample the products, and purchase maple baked goods.