Kids Out And About Features our Sap, Syrup & Sugar Program!

We were excited last week when Kids Out and About visited us at the museum and did a little filming at out Sugar Camp for our Sap, Syrup & Sugar event! The program runs the rest of the weekends in March and includes activities at the GCV& M Nature Center, Historic Village and  features a Pancake Breakfast with real New York State Maple Syrup!

Kids Out And About is an awesome resource for any and all activities in the Rochester area!!! They have an extensive website as well as a weekly newsletter! This week you can win a family four pack of tickets to our event and pancake breakfast!

Singers Welcome!!!

Singers Welcome!

Do you enjoy singing? Do you sing with another choir or group? How about your spouse, family or friends? If this sounds like you, (or your spouse, family or friends) please consider joining the Genesee Harmonic Society this season.

The Harmonics invite singers to attend three free workshops on vocal techniques taught by Gian Carlo Cervone, the director of the Genesee Harmonic Society. Join us for some reminders, new ideas and practice to improve your singing, especially in a group. The workshops will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at GCV&M on March 23rd, March 30th and April 6th. The sessions in past years have been found to be both enjoyable and helpful by those who attended and many people have returned every year to participate. The exercises and activities are fun and the workshops are conducted in a low-pressure manner so that even singers with little experience are comfortable. The workshops this year will include techniques to improve personal singing skills (breathing, intonation, dynamics, sight-reading), as well as choral singing skills (blending with a section following a conductor, working with and without accompaniment, diction) and matters of musical interpretation (group phrasing and expression).

The Genesee Harmonic Society is a group of thirty volunteers and staff who practice weekly during the regular season. This year the Harmonics will perform five concerts at the museum – the first on Memorial Day and then four other Sundays throughout the season. The group sings choral music from all periods and of all types. New members are always welcome.

Contact Anne Rodgers for information on the workshops or joining the Genesee Harmonic Society at arodgers@gcv.org or 294-8275.

Registration required.

Sap, Sugar & Syrup-Our First Special Event of The 2011 Season!!

Are you missing GCV& M yet?

We miss you!!!

About this time of year we've all recovered from the hustle & bustle that is our Yuletide in The Country Celebration and we're looking tword our new season. We have many interesting things planned in 2011, the first of which is our Maple Syrup Program, Sap, Sugar & Syrup!
This coming weekend, and for the rest of the weekends in March, the entire museum, including the GCV&M Nature Center will be alive with activites.

1. Journey back in time to our Sugar Camp where you'lll see 19th century style sugaring activities complete with log hewing, spile carving, tree tapping, sap collection and boiling down the sap to syrup and sugar, which will actually be used by our village cooks throughout the season.
   
   Visit the cooper and tinsmith as they make buckets for collecting sap. Kids (and adults) can create a maple leaf tin ornament to take home ($). Along the way, collect puzzle pieces for your Maple Passport and search for the elusive Felicity with a scavenger hunt for kids.

You can also enjoy self guided walks to the sugar bush as well as syrup and food tasting demonstrations in our village kitchens! We're cooking up chili with our secret recipe and you'll  love our maple ices as well as cotton candy made with REAL MAPLE SUGAR-A treat we dare you to try and find anywhere else!!!!

Start your day at the museum off with a  Pancake and Sausage Breakfast 9 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Museum Meeting Center.  ($8 for adults, $6 for youth and free for ages 3 and under) with real maple syrup! Then plan to take home a bit of the maple season with a visit to our museum shops. All of our maple syrup & products are from New York State Maple Syrup Producer, Sprague's Maple Farms.

Maple Baking Contest!!!!

Maple syrup isn’t just for pancakes, of course. It adds exquisite flavor to all sorts of foods, especially baked goods. Test how good your favorite maple recipe is in our Cooking with Maple Contest. The contest will take place March 12, the first Saturday of the program. The prize winners in each category get to spend a day in costume working in the historic village alongside one of our 19th-century cooks. Our cooks take great pride in what they do and this will be an experience the winner will not forget!!!

(Judges for this year's contest are: Dan Eaton of YNN’s Cooking @ Home, François Lachance, plant manager of Churchville’s Star of the West Milling Co.; Karen Miltner, staff food writer for the Democrat and Chronicle; and Sally Santora of the Livingston County News.)

For an entry form click here!

We encourage everyone to enter! There are 4 different categories and 3 different age groups for a total of 12 PRIZES!!!

Admission to Sap, Syrup & Sugar is adults $8/ $6 members; youth $6/$4 members. Children 3 and younger are admitted free. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door.