MIDDLEFIELD, Conn. (WTNH) — Late winter is the best time of the year to tap maple trees and make maple syrup.

Lyman Orchards in Middlefield hosted a maple sugaring event and pancake party with a pancake-eating contest on Sunday.

Families got the chance to learn how to tap a maple tree with the Environmental Learning Centers of Connecticut.

“We’re here with our mobile sugar shack demonstrating how to make maple syrup, so everything from how do you identify a maple tree, how do you collect, how do you tap that tree, to then how do you evaporate it into syrup,” said Kirsten Tomlinson, a representative for the Environmental Learning Centers of Connecticut.

If you missed Sunday’s event, the maple sugaring and pancake party is also taking place Saturday, March 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Lyman Orchards.