Sugar Grove and Don Samuel of his family decided to take full advantage of the mild weather during the first weekend of March and learn a little more about maple syrup.
“After our back yard having a maple tree in our back yard, I am excited to see what we can do.”
The annual program sponsored by the forest protected district of Ken County included the opportunity to see a naturalist tap in trees to collect SAP and eventually replicate it into syrup.
Barb McCitric, Environmental Education Manager, Creek Bend, said the event is before 1995 and is one of the more popular two-day attractions at the center.
Hot weather in February, McCitrick said, a Holocaust of SAP has been created which is going on in greater quantity than normal.
“We have a lot because it was hot and some of it had actually deteriorated, which was a shame,” he said. “Climate change is definitely affecting the time when we do sugarcits, and we have started to pursue it in the first year.”
Recently the weather “was perfect for the SAP flow and we would have a lot,” McCitrick promised before the incident. “We will have a lot to boil and showcase, but it will not be the most kind weather we have done, because unfortunately, of spoiling.”
McCitrick said that around 2,000 people were expected to attend the two -day program.
“This is always a great family program and after people are copied for winter, this is one of the first things to welcome spring, so they prefer to get out and live together,” he said.
The incident again included opportunities on a lot of hands, including drilling, a tree, sports, indoor crafts and more in a log.
After attending the event, visitors often vow to go home and tap their back yard maple trees, said McCitric.
“You all need a tap and a tree and you can easily make it (syrup) at home,” he said. “You can also make it in your kitchen in a crocut pot. It takes a long time, but you can do it.
McCitric said about the incident, “People also like good food and we have a maple cafe, where they could have a custard custard with maple syrup and maple cookies or or a beautiful,” said about the phenomenon, including a jazz band inside the center.
Ashley Samuel said that this was the first time in this program and this goal was “children had to teach maple sugaring and life in the old days”.
“My children read the book ‘Little House in Big Woods’, so we were going to a little pregem,” he said. “We are fans of big pancakes and syrup. We had something yesterday. ,
10 -year -old Gabriela Samuel said that his favorite thing was on Butter Pancakes, but he admitted that “it would be good to make some of our own syrup.”
“I am going to try ice cream with syrup today,” she said.
Linda Bubbykar of Geneva said that this was also her first time in the event and she said that she was from Ohio about “where there are many festivals” about maple syrup.
“I am happy that something like this is. They are really fun and I am eager to go through various stations, ”he said. “I never collected and boiled the syrup, but my family is near.”
Amber Ross of Woodstock, an naturalist Woodstock at the Nature Center, was on Saturday to boil the syrup on a wooden fire, which covered him in smoke.
The naturalist two-day Maple Sugaring Days Festival at the Creek Bend Nature Center at St. Charles was busy in the weekend. (For David Sharos / Bicon-News)
“As far as we boil, it depends on how much has been collected,” Ross explained. “Unfortunately, SAP does not have a long shelf life when it is hot in this way. It gets spoiled and clouds. It remains for a long time on the cold days as we had in the middle of the week. Right now, we are only sitting on about 10 gallon sap which will be available for us about a pint but the trees are now flowing. ,
Elgin’s Sarah Macah was looking at her 9 -year -old daughter Theresa, a maple was drilling a hole in the log and said she was “expecting something fun and may learn about the process.”
“We have a maple tree and maybe we will try it,” he said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for Bicon-News.