Shepherd Maple Syrup | (Shepherd Sugar Bush)

The Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival will take place this ear from April 27th to April 30th and Shepherd will be filled with garage sales, carnival fun, craft shows, a tractor pull, and oh yeah…The pancakes and sausage! Here are a few of the things you cannot miss at this years Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival!

Pancakes and butter | (Tavallai/Flickr)

1The Pancakes, Sausage, and Maple Syrup

The best pancakes and sausage I have ever had! The maple syrup is like putting caramel (but better) on your pancakes and the sausage has became a legend all on its own. The pancakes are served at Shepherd High/Middle School. Come eat pancakes with myself and Matt Collins Saturday morning at 10 am; thanks to the folks at the maple syrup festival I don’t think they knew what they got themselves into!

2Tractor-Pull

Random Yard/Garage Sale | (Jimmyjazz at English Wikipedia)

When I was in high school on the last day of school, many kids drive their farm tractors to school…and a lot of people have tractors in Shepherd, that just tells you the pride people from the area have in the tractors. .  Bragging rights go a long way in this yearly competition at the Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival The tractor pull begins on Saturday April 29th at 10 a.m. For full tractor pull information check it out here.

3Garage Sales

Carnival at Maple Syrup Festival | (9&10 News)

Just about everyone has a garage sale in Shepherd during the Maple Syrup Festival, and if they don’t its probably because they teamed up with their neighbor. Starting on Thursday anything and everything you can think of will be for sale at a discounted price at random homes in Shepherd. Many garage sales will go the entire weekend, but take it from me if you want to find some cool, random, and cheap items Thursday morning Shepherd is the place to be. Watch out for golf carts, ATV’s, and pedestrians!

4The Carnival

With Summerfest no longer in Mt Pleasant. The Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival along with the Isabella County 4-H fair are the only times the rides and carnival food make their way to Isabella County. The rides aren’t so much my thing, but oh I love the food…I know a stomach ache may insure, but at every carnival I want a corn dog, funnel cake (or elephant ear), and some deep fried oreo’s. It is probably good for me there are only a couple opportunities for carnival food, but in all reality it is a luxury I try to take advantage of when i can!

And with that being said the Maple Syrup Festival is a luxury you should take advantage of! To see a full schedule of events check out the Shepherd Maple Syrup website! I will see you in the sweetest little town anywhere around April 27th to the 30th!