THE SUGAR SHACK AT MALABAR FARM—
The huge draft horses (above) clopity-thumped their wagon loads of visitors to and from the sugar camp in the wooded Malabar Farm hills where steam hissed from the syrup processing shed like a hot tub on steroids.
These warm early spring days and cold nights set the Maple tree sap flowing and buckets or sap collection lines sprout in the woods like spring mushrooms.
More than 600 trees are tapped at the farm. Depending on sugar concentration, it takes about 43 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup.
Visitors to the annual syrup festival scampered from their horse-drawn carriages and were
treated to a Native American reenactment of early syrup production where the “Malabar Tribe’s” very own Black Dog (bottom) described the process of putting the sap in hollowed out logs and steaming it into syrup by placing red hot rocks in the fluid.
In another historic demonstration in the snow-covered woods, ladies, some in pioneer garb (upper right) showed how the syrup was stored in sugar form for longer preservation.
The third stop in the festival area was the sugar shack itself, a very modern iteration of syrup production nicely wrapped in rustic, wooded architecture. Here a large stainless steel evaporator sitting atop a red-hot wood fire does the chore of turning the sap into syrup—taste tested all day by the visitors like youngsters in a candy shop.
Park Manager Louis Andres (lower right) treats visitors to a description of the heart of the
syrup production system. “We produce approximately 100 gallons of maple syrup each season,” he noted.
The thin sap snakes it way through the baffles in the evaporator, slowly losing its moisture content until it is finally drawn off in the form of that delicious liquid gold we enjoy at breakfast.
In the near-by Pugh Cabin complex visitors had the opportunity to purchase their very-own share of the farm’s syrup production while folks from the Richland County Museum displayed typical life experiences of the pioneer period.
This year’s festival was the 31st annual event for the popular program. It was scheduled the first two weekends in March.
For more on Malabar Farm activities check here: http://www.malabarfarm.org/
The huge draft horses (above) clopity-thumped their wagon loads of visitors to and from the sugar camp in the wooded Malabar Farm hills where steam hissed from the syrup processing shed like a hot tub on steroids.
These warm early spring days and cold nights set the Maple tree sap flowing and buckets or sap collection lines sprout in the woods like spring mushrooms.
More than 600 trees are tapped at the farm. Depending on sugar concentration, it takes about 43 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup.
Visitors to the annual syrup festival scampered from their horse-drawn carriages and were
treated to a Native American reenactment of early syrup production where the “Malabar Tribe’s” very own Black Dog (bottom) described the process of putting the sap in hollowed out logs and steaming it into syrup by placing red hot rocks in the fluid.In another historic demonstration in the snow-covered woods, ladies, some in pioneer garb (upper right) showed how the syrup was stored in sugar form for longer preservation.
The third stop in the festival area was the sugar shack itself, a very modern iteration of syrup production nicely wrapped in rustic, wooded architecture. Here a large stainless steel evaporator sitting atop a red-hot wood fire does the chore of turning the sap into syrup—taste tested all day by the visitors like youngsters in a candy shop.
Park Manager Louis Andres (lower right) treats visitors to a description of the heart of the
syrup production system. “We produce approximately 100 gallons of maple syrup each season,” he noted.The thin sap snakes it way through the baffles in the evaporator, slowly losing its moisture content until it is finally drawn off in the form of that delicious liquid gold we enjoy at breakfast.
In the near-by Pugh Cabin complex visitors had the opportunity to purchase their very-own share of the farm’s syrup production while folks from the Richland County Museum displayed typical life experiences of the pioneer period.
This year’s festival was the 31st annual event for the popular program. It was scheduled the first two weekends in March.
For more on Malabar Farm activities check here: http://www.malabarfarm.org/
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