Sugar Camp Days at Bendix Woods County Park, March 16 & 17

Having spent 15 years up in northern Indiana, I realized there’s an awful lot of maple syrup in Indiana. Vermont may have the reputation of being the maple syrup capital, but Indiana has plenty of maple syrup to give the tiny state a run for its money.

Even Bendix Woods County Park up in South Bend gets in on the action with this year’s Sugar Camp Days on March 16 & 17. From 8:30 am to 3:00 pm, you can bask in everything maple syrup. Learn how maple sap is cooked into that sweet, sweet syrup, pig out on pancakes and sausages at the New Carlisle Lion’s Club breakfast, tour the Sugar Bush, enjoy different musical events, ride in a horse-drawn wagon, and even buy homemade baked goods that use maple syrup.

You and your family can pack into the car and come to Sugar Camp Days for $7. While you’re there, you can participate in the Rent-a-Sap Bucket program. For a $35 donation, which is used to support historical programming and supplies for the maple sugaring operations, you will receive:

• 1 complimentary ticket to the Sugar Camp Days breakfast on March 16 and 17, 2013
• 16oz. can of Robby’s Buttermilk Pancake Mix
• 1 pint of Bendix Woods’ pure maple syrup
• 1 gate pass (one time use, April-November)
• Your name entered in a drawing to win canoeing and disc golf passes

I can’t be sure of the total value, but given the cost of the breakfast, the pancake mix, the guest pass, and the cost of a pint of pure maple syrup, you could be getting close to the $35 cost anyway. Depending on how much you use the St. Joseph County Parks, you may come out money ahead (especially if you show up at the breakfast really hungry!).