After months of harvesting sweet sap from thousands of maple trees, two Michigan communities are celebrating the end of the season with the fruits of all that labor.
This week, Shepherd and Vermontville are hosting vendors, thousands of guests and enjoying some of the state’s finest maple syrup from Michigan maple trees.
The Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival starts Thursday, April 23, and continues to Sunday, April 26. The Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival is Friday, April 24, to Sunday, April 26.
Both events will provide plenty of sweet reasons to enjoy the taste of maple syrup. Here’s what to know about the 2026 festivals.
Four days of syrupy fun at the Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival 2026
From April 23-26, the Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival will maintain a sweet tradition that began in 1958.
“It was 1958 when the earliest Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival was held in Shepherd,” according to the festival website. “Trees were tapped, sap was gathered by volunteers, and the public was invited to a community wide pancake dinner. Proceeds from the sale of the syrup helped support recreational activities and facilities in the community.”
According to tradition, a community member is selected as the parade grand marshal every year. For 2026, the board chose the school district’s retired band teacher, Claude Lemmer, who is considered “the music meister of the Shepherd area and the Maple Syrup Festival.”
The parade starts at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 26, and will proceed west to east on Wright Avenue.
Families are welcome to join in a on the carnival, face painting, pony rides, art shows, sugar bush tours, a cornhole tournament, live music, all-you-can-eat pancake and sausage meals and more.
Festival hours are 11 a.m. through 7 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
For more details on the events, the festival’s official website provides information on the day-to-day schedule with allotted times, ticket prices and festival map for parking and lodging.
Spend the weekend at Vermontville’s Maple Syrup Festival
The Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival has been occurring annually since 1940.
The 85th celebration, considered the “grandaddy” of festivals, has numerous events on the calendar, including a pancake dinner, carnival rides, talent show, petting zoo, craft show, live music, a grand parade and other games, including a pancake eating contest.
Vermontville is located southwest of Lansing, and the festival will be downtown over the weekend.
On April 24, festivities begin with a “Maple Valley Band Boosters Pancake Dinner,” that requires tickets, at 5 p.m. at the downtown fire station.
On April 25, festivities are packed from 7 a.m. to dusk with a drone show by Starlight Aerial Productions as the closer, weather permitting.
The last day of the festival, April 26, is from at 7 a.m. to at 1 p.m.
To see the daily events with specific times and locations go to the official website. The website also provides information on Vermontville’s lengthy festival history and offers some maple syrup-based recipes, including maple sweet potatoes.
How do you make maple syrup?
Sugar maples have the highest sugar content of all maples, with an approximate 40:1 water-to-sugar ratio, and are used in commercial production, according to the Michigan DNR. Black, red and silver maples can be tapped to produce syrup as well, but the sugar content is lower and it will take more sap to make syrup.
Box elders, a maple relative, are sometimes tapped for syrup.
Maple sap is collected in early spring as the fluctuation between freezing and warmer temperatures creates the necessary pressure for sap to flow, the DNR said. For most of Michigan, March is “maple syrup season,” but depending on location, it can begin earlier or later.
Once enough sap is collected, it needs to be filtered, and heated in a pot to reduce, or boil out excess water.
Sugar content will be 66% in finished syrup, the DNR explained, which can be measured using a tool called a hydrometer, often found in homebrewing stores. Reducing sap further will create crystals in the product.
Does Michigan produce a lot of syrup?
The Michigan Maple Syrup Association has more than 150 members who produce more than 50,000 gallons of syrup annually.
Contact Sarah Moore @ smoore@lsj.com
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan’s maple syrup season comes to sweet end with 2 festivals
Reporting by Sarah Moore, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
