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I went to a sugar festival this weekend!! And not just any sugar festival—a MAPLE SYRUP festival.
Every year, the Montgomery County park authority holds a maple syrup festival in Wheaton, Maryland. I found out about this through a wonderful group on Facebook I joined a few years ago called “The February Campaign.” This group acknowledges the February is the worst month ever, and works to balance the negativity with fun activities. One such activity is the Maple Syrup Festival, and since it had to do with food, I went to it.
I dragged my buddy Linder along. We know each other from years and years ago, when we were both struggling opera singers just trying to get a job. Although we talk every day online, it had been a while since we actually physically saw each other. I was excited to catch up with an old friend!
After meeting in the parking lot of a local Staples, we piled into one car for what will now be known as Linder and Mel’s Excellent Maple Syrup Adventure. We headed to Wheaton Regional Park, and after following many oddly placed signs, finally found ourselves to the visitor center.
It was there that our true education began.
Linder and I crowded into a room with eleventy billion kids and their affiliated parental figures. A veteran park volunteer launched into what was probably her twentieth presentation that day, explaining how the maple syrup is made. If it wasn’t for the snot nosed little teachers pet in the front row who kept interrupting the speaker to ask and/or answer hypothetical questions, it would have been really interesting.
The Wheaton area is special in that it is densely populated with red maple—I’m not sure why, but these are different than the maple trees up in New England where a majority of the country’s maple syrup is made. Due to the limited number of tappable trees available, they’re not able to produce enough syrup to actually sell, but enough is produced to give us all a light slathering on a cold silver dollar pancake, so I was sated.
Volunteer Lady popped in a VHS (yes, a VHS) into the machine and on came a video about…what else? Maple syrup. The circa 1975 video featured a flock of school children visiting a Vermont syrup farm on a field trip. It also featured very bad, John Denver-style folksy music with corny lyrics. Linder and I, both uppity classically trained vocalists, snickered in the back row.
In late winter, specially trained tappers (no idea if that’s what they’re called, but that’s what I’d call myself if I tapped trees) head out into the woods. Using a special drill, they bore a hole into the maple trunk approximately four inches deep and insert a small spout. Volunteer Lady assured us that when done properly, this does not harm the tree. She also said there are some trees in Vermont that have been tapped continuously for nearly one hundred years.
When the weather fluctuates above freezing during the day and below at night, the sap begins to flow. If the tree has been tapped, it drips into a specially made bucket. This is later collected (by school children, if the video is to believed) and boiled down into maple syrup.
Following the video, we were duly shepherded out to the woods where we were invited to observe the wonderful maple
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This is Aiden. The poor thing was too short to carry the buckets, and they kept slipping off the hooks!
syrup making process. At the top of the hill were many trees, each with a silver bucket affixed to the trunk to catch the sap. A small folding table had been set up, with a teenage volunteer offering a small taste of maple sap.
Against my better judgment, I tried the sap. I didn’t think it could possibly be any good, but I was surprised that I actually liked it. It was only slightly sweet—not the super concentrated sugarness of a traditional syrup. Sap is mostly water (hence the boiling), so the sugar content was very diluted. It was like a flavorless Pedialite, if that means anything to anyone.
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I has found mah bukkit!
Walking down the hill, we could watch volunteers boiling down the sap in a big vat. To the left was a small early American reproduction cabin. I stepped inside, and was able to get some cool shots of some reproduction kitchen utensils. Always the kitchen gadget lover, I snapped a few shots of bowls and spoons laid out on a table. I’m not sure about the bowls, but the spoons are handmade by a local volunteer, Lev Friedman. I got a chance to talk to him about how he got involved with making the spoons—apparently he found a ‘how to’ on a message forum online and delved right in. Very cool!
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Lev's spoon, along with the tools he used
After sampling the newly made maple syrup on the above mentioned cold pancake, Linder and I called it a day by splitting a tapas sampler at a nearby restaurant. (Operation: Dinner Party, week 1 FTW!)
Was it a wildly awesome party? Definitely not. But despite the corny video, I did learn a lot, and now understand why pure maple syrup is so much more expensive than the crappy diluted stuff. Learned a lot, had some great tapas, and enjoyed a great evening with an old friend. All in all, a great food day!
And in other way excited news…I’M FINALLY GETTING CABLE ON WEDNESDAY! I never started my service after I moved, and was focused on saving money before making the call. But things are all humming nicely now, and the installation man is going to be here somewhere between 8am and 12pm on Wednesday.
Food Network, I’ve missed you!!!
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
