Friday, March 07, 2008
Maple magic at the Highland Maple Festival
Highland County's 50th annual Maple Festival kicked off March 8-9, celebrating the sweet sap. If you missed it, you can catch it this weekend.
The Roanoke Times
File The Sugar Tree Country Store in McDowell, one of the sugar camps of the Maple Festival, uses a modern reverse osmosis concentrator and oil-fired evaporator.
AP File
Volunteers make pancakes for festival-goers during the Highland Maple Festival in 2000.
Cooking up some old-fashioned maple syrup at the Highland Maple Festival
The Sugar Tree County Store in McDowell, Va., is one of the location sites of the Maple Festival in Highland County.
File photos
Recipes
The sap is rising, the trees are tapped and the maple trees are making magic in Highland County.
The Highland Maple Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary as it flows over the next two weekends in the high, mountainous county that has long billed itself as "Virginia's Little Switzerland."
The festival celebrates Highland County's sweetest commodity -- maple syrup, not to mention maple sugar, candy, butter, doughnuts and anything else produced from the sweet sap of 200-year-old sugar maples.
The festival began in 1958 as a way to educate the locals about the history of syrup making in the Alleghany Highlands. Over the next two weekends, as many as 50,000 visitors will invade the least-populated county in Virginia (pop: about 2,500) to partake of local delicacies and to tour the "sugar camps" and "sugar orchards" where maple products are made.
The county seat of Monterey, located smack dab in the middle of the county, is fittingly the center of festival activities, featuring vendors, crafts, food and music. About nine miles southeast is the community of McDowell, the site of more activities and the only place to partake of the trout dinner.
The real festival fun, though, happens at the farms and country stores that offer live demonstrations of syrup making and tastings of maple goodies.
Here's a rundown of syrupy facts.
Tapping the source
Many of the county's syrup producers still gather syrup the old-fashioned way -- by drilling a hole in the tree, inserting a tap and hanging a bucket to collect the drips.
The modern technique of tubing and vacuum extraction is another common way to collect sap. Some sugar camps use both methods.
Sap is then boiled for hours in a flat pan called the evaporator. Water evaporates from the sap, leaving behind syrup. It takes almost 40 gallons of pure sap to make one gallon of syrup.
Tree tapping in action!
You can watch part of the syrup-making process at several sugar camps across the county. Maps for a driving tour are available from the Highland County Chamber of Commerce, (540) 468-2550. You can download a map at www.highlandcounty.org/maple_sugar.htm.
Highland County boasts several syrup-making farms, but below are the only facilities open to the public. The county lost one of its longest-running festival stops last week when a fire struck Puffenbarger's Sugar Orchard, destroying a building, equipment and this year's stock of syrup. The Puffenbargers have vowed to rebuild and they still plan to offer a limited selection of goods during this year's festival.
Eagle Sugar Camp
The Eagle family has produced syrup for more than 200 years and still uses open-pan, wood-fired evaporators instead of the latest advanced computerized oil-fired evaporators. Local honey, maple products, buckwheat, cornmeal and baked goods are available, along with home-cooked food, maple doughnuts and crafts.
Located north of McDowell off Virginia 654.
Rexrode's Sugar Orchard
A stand of 200-year-old maples, open-pan boiling and yummy food are the big draws at Rexrode's. Baked country ham, chili dogs, barbecue sandwiches and other foods are available.
Located north of Hightown on Virginia 637.
Southernmost Maple Products
Southernmost Maple Products claims to use the only piggyback evaporator in the South. If that's not a draw, what is? A rustic country store offers a variety of maple products, flour, honey, jellies and baked goods. Maple pit-cooked barbecue, pork skins and maple doughnuts are available.
Closed on Sundays.
Located at Bolar off U.S. 220.
Sugar Tree Country Store and Sugar House
Welcome to high-tech syrup making. This operation employs a modern reverse osmosis concentrator and oil-fired evaporator. Antique maple-producing tools are on display. Enjoy a selection of country store merchandise, pottery, maple products and jams. Brunswick stew, maple doughnuts and other foods will be available during Maple Festival. Closed on Sundays.
Located near the center of McDowell.
Tim Duff's Sugar Camp
This is only the second year Duff has participated in the festival. The operation is still small-scale, but you can still see the old-timey buckets hanging on the trees.
Located at Meadowdale off Virginia 84.
Pancakes, fudge ... and chili dogs
What better partner for a jug of authentic Highland County maple syrup than a thick, hearty stack of pancakes? Well, how about a chicken leg or a pretty, pink trout?
The folks in Highland County get pretty creative with their maple concoctions this time of year. If you visit the Maple Festival, you can dine on everything from plain or buckwheat pancakes with sausage, bacon or ham to maple barbecue chicken or trout, maple doughnuts and all manners of cakes, candies and cookies.
Once you're mapled-out (is that even possible?) hit up the cheeseburger and chili dog stand, nosh on some homemade pork rinds or down a funnel cake. Of course, the Highlanders can probably find a way to make the funnel cakes maple, too.
