Maple syrup festivals are a taste of spring

Posted by Bill on Monday, February 25, 2008   |   No Comments

Producing maple syrup, be it is a quaint backyard experiment or a huge commercial operation, is an activity with its own language. “Sugaring” refers to whole process. It involves “tapping” sugar maple trees with metal or plastic tubes and collecting the “sap” or “maple water” that flows from the trees in late winter/early spring. A “sugar bush” is a stand of maple trees.

Native Americans showed grateful colonists how to cut Vs into maple trees to channel and collect the substance that flowed from the trees when daytime temperatures started to reach about 40 degrees and nighttime temps dipped to around 25 degrees. As the trees warmed up, pressure built within, literally forcing the sap from any opening in the trunks.

It happens exactly the same way today. Only the methods of collecting and processing have changed. Sap usually “runs” or flows from mid-February to mid-March. However, the actual “sap runs” (when it is actually dripping from the trees) occur only a handful of times. Trees of about 12 to 14 inches in diameter are tapped by drilling a shallow hole into the trunk.

The sap flows from the tree through the tap and is collected in a wooden or metal bucket. Nowadays, some large operations use plastic tubing to bring the sap directly to the processing station (“sugar house”), thereby bypassing the time and labor it takes to collect sap from hundreds or thousands of individual taps.

Since the raw sap is mostly water, “sugar makers” must boil it off in evaporators. Many smaller sugar makers still stoke theirs with wood. Commercial operations often use natural gas. But no matter how it’s done, the rules are the same: It takes about 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of maple syrup.

As a traditional rural springtime ritual, sugaring is a quaint reminder of our pioneering past, much like cider making is in the fall. Besides, if the sap is running, spring is just around the corner. Perhaps that’s why a good many communities all over the Midwest celebrate maple syrup festivals. They are usually engaging homespun affairs with whole communities pitching in to stage competitions, parades, sugaring demos, flea markets, arts and crafts and talent shows, musical entertainment and lots of eating—everything from barbecued beef to fried chicken and, of course, sausage and pancakes with maple syrup.

There are lots of these festivals out there. One way to get a cross section of them is to go to state tourism sites and conduct a search. Or just do an Internet search. Festivals are held annually in Vermontville, MI; Shepherd, MI; Wakarusa, IN; Rockville, IN; Springfield, IL; and Chardon, OH, to name but a few.

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