Park visitors get the skinny on syrup
HUESTON WOODS STATE
Visitors to Hueston PARK —
Woods State Park learned about nature, trees and how Native Americans and pioneers made maple syrup last weekend during the Hueston Woods Maple Syrup Festival.
During what one naturalist described as the 52nd annual version of the festival, visitors to the park stood next to what Jenny Richards, a visiting naturalist from Shawnee State Park and a self-described tree hugger, told them was a 350-year-old tulip tree.
Richards told tour groups, who arrived in the woods by hay rides, almost any tree can provide sap that makes tasty syrup, with the nasty notable exception of sycamore trees, according to the late naturalist and wild-food proponent Euell Gibbons.
But maple trees are used because they have the highest sugar content, about 2 percent (with 98 percent water), people were told during the festival. Lids are kept over the buckets to keep out additional water to reduce the amount of cooking time. The longer the syrup is cooked, the darker it becomes, getting away from the beloved amber color.
Richards told one group the sap is “the sweetest, most delicious water ever.”
No trees were harmed in the making of the syrup, naturalists promised.
“It’s awesome,” said Sandeep Deshpande of Shelbyville, Ind., who traveled with his wife about 60 miles for the event. He most enjoyed the history he learned, he said.