10th Annual Backyard Maple Syrup Production Workshop and Pancake Breakfast

Join us as we celebrate a decade of making maple syrup at the Dixon Springs Agricultural Center at our 10th annual Backyard Maple Syrup Production Workshop and 4H pancake breakfast.

Maple sap collection and syrup production is easy, relatively inexpensive to start, and is a great late winter project that can be fun for the entire family. Sugar maples, the species typically thought of for sap collection, are abundant in southern Illinois but other species of maple can also be tapped to make this tasty syrup.

The Backyard Maple Syrup Production Workshop is an all-outdoor program will cover tree identification, equipment needs, tree tapping, sap collection, boiling, and finishing maple syrup. Participants will see firsthand the processes involved in making maple syrup. We will have a demonstration of a syrup evaporator and an optional tour of a sugarbush forest, managed for maple syrup production and utilizing a pipeline system of sap collection.

The University of Illinois Extension will provide an indoor maple syrup program for kids.

The workshop will be held on Saturday, February 7th, 2026 from 10:00 am -12:15 pm at the Dixon Springs Agricultural Center, located at 354 State Highway 145 N, Simpson, IL 62985. This program is free and open to the public.

Before the workshop, we are hosting a pancake breakfast as a 4H fundraiser. Join at us 8:30am for pancakes and real maple syrup made right here at the Dixon Springs Ag Center ($10 per person, $8 for kids 10 and under)