Naturalists at Oregon Ridge demonstrate how maple syrup is made

Joe Warfield, 77, a long time volunteer from Reisterstown, watches over the evaporator and checks the sap/syrup's point in the evaporation process making sure not to over boil the sap. (Brendan Cavanaugh/P3 Imaging, BALTIMORE SUN / February 26, 2011)


By Jessica Anderson, The Baltimore Sun

8:31 p.m. EST, February 26, 2011
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At first, the clear liquid doesn't quite resemble the thick, gooey brown substance dribbled across pancakes and French toast, but naturalists assured the crowds gathered Saturday at Oregon Ridge Park that the sap tapped from maple trees, with a little elbow grease, would make maple syrup.

Several hundred came for tours led by the Baltimore County park employees over the weekend for the annual Maple Sugar Weekend held each February, when weather conditions help the flow of sap with cold nights and warmer days.

"It was really informational," said Lawrence Almengor of Harford County, who came with his wife, three young children and his parents. He said he and his wife, Briana Almengor, home-school their 6-year-old twin sons Tucker and Judah and daughter Bella, 4.

"Anything they can experience hands-on like that is great," said Briana Almengor.

Lawrence Almengor said his kids weren't the only ones learning. "I didn't know you could make sap using different trees," he said.

"I didn't realize it wasn't sticky, I learned a lot," his wife said, adding that she didn't realize that Maryland had its own maple syrup producers.

The state is not among the top 10 maple producers, but several farms continue to tap sap, mostly in Western Maryland, where Garrett County was the maple capital of the U.S. in 1928, according to a 2009 Frederick News-Post article.

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