Other sweet events are happening all around the region, including:

• The Pennsylania Maple Festival -- this year is the 63rd -- takes over Meyersdale, Somerset County, for a weekend and a week: March 20-21 and March 24-28. There's a walk and a run, the historical pageant "Legend of the Magic Water," the Maple Queen pageant, a parade, a dance, car and tractor shows, and of course the Lions Club's pancakes and sausage feeds. Admission to Maple Festival Park is $4 adults, $1 children ages 6 to 12, and free for children 5 and younger (pageant additional). Get all the details at pamaplefestival.com or call 1-814-634-0213. (The Chartiers-Houston Community Library is running a bus trip to the fest on March 27 for $30; call 724-745-4300.)

• On March 20, the Washington County Department of Parks and Recreation holds a Maple Sugaring Tour and Breakfast at shelter six in Mingo Creek County Park. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., tours will be given every half hour. There also are historical and sap-collecting demonstrations and a pancake and sausage breakfast for $2 per person. You must pre-register at 724-228-6867.

• From 2 to 3 p.m. March 28, Jennings Environmental Education Center near Slippery Rock in Butler County will present a free program on maple sugaring that begins indoors and moves outside for a guided walk to see trees, a working evaporator - and you get "a taste of spring itself," real maple syrup. Details at 724-794-6011 and visitpaparks.com.

• The 33rd Annual Beaver County Maple Syrup Festival runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 10 and 11 at the lodge at Brady's Run Park on Route 51 in Fallston. All-you-can-eat buttermilk or buckwheat pancake breakfast costs $6 for adults, $4 for children, and you also get entertainment, crafters, children's activities and more. Take home maple syrup as well as buckwheat, corn meal and wheat flour ground on site (beavercountyconservationdistrict.org).

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