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THE WARREN FARM & SUGARHOUSE31 Warren St., North Brookfield, MA 01535 (508) 867-0174 www.thewarrenfarm.com Dear Classroom Teacher, While you are planning your field trips for the year, we would like to invite your class to tour our maple sugaring operation. The tour, approximately 50 minutes long, takes children on a guided and narrated walk through the history of maple sugaring. We will share stories about the Native Americans’ role in the early history of sugaring, and continue by demonstrating colonial methods and tools for collecting and boiling. Along the way students will explore two different systems used today, and will have an opportunity to see new technology. Aspects of science, meteorology, global warming, and math will be woven into the presentation. At the sugarhouse a large evaporator stands ready to receive sap from collection tanks outside. Here, students will learn how sap is boiled into syrup, and see the equipment and gauges needed for this process. The tour will end at the picnic table area so that everyone can sample fresh sap and pure maple syrup. The level of discussion is adapted to the age of the group, and questions are encouraged. Older students focus on issues of ecology and economics as well as more sophisticated aspects of technology. This is certainly a tradition that has something of interest to all ages! The admission fee is $7.00 for students and, new this year, adults are free. Each student will receive a gift bag containing a 100 ml mini-jug of syrup, a kid’s activity/recipe booklet, a honey stick, and a maple coloring book. Teachers will receive a free packet of educational materials to use back in the classroom. We have a gift shop filled with maple syrup, maple confections and other products we produce here on the farm. The most inexpensive items, varying in prices from $1.25 to $10.00, are arranged in the center of the shop just for students. This is an optional stop added to the end of the tour (approx. 20 min), and only the teacher will decide if it is to be part of the class’s experience. There is ample parking for cars and vans, and plenty of room for a school bus to maneuver. We strongly suggest that everyone attending be dressed for an outdoor hike during cold, and sometimes muddy, weather. Many of our March days are sunny but windy. The actual walk is about 1/8 of a mile total, and is easy enough for even the youngest students to handle. Once inside the sugarhouse students will be close enough to touch the evaporator. For safety reasons, we will not be fired up during the tour, but there will be sap and syrup in it from the last boil for students to view. We recommend a chaperone ratio of about one adult for every eight students. You will be mailed a free grade-appropriate learning activity along with your reservation confirmation and a map to the farm. Tour slots for schools are scheduled Mon. thru Thurs. at 10:30 and 1:00 during the month of March. Please call as soon as possible to reserve your date and time, as our spaces are limited during the season and this has been a very popular field trip. If you would like references from other schools, please let us know. We look forward to meeting your class and sharing our love for sugaring, Janice and Dale Wentworth |