One of the unofficial ways to welcome spring is by celebrating pure maple syrup.
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore’s Chellberg Farm in Porter hosts the 39th year of Maple Sugar Time March 4-5 and 11-12.
“The last few years we’ve added a new element,” said Bruce Rowe, one of the organizers of Maple Sugar Time.
“This year we’re going to be increasing our modern or present-day site,” Rowe said. While the event is a historic presentation of how maple sugar has been made in the past, the farm will also give people insight into what they might see if they were to go to Vermont or a modern maple sugar site.
“We’ve got exhibits on what a modern maple sugar shack will look like. It’s very different from what they will see at Chellberg Farm.”
In the 1930s the Chellberg family started to tap the property’s maple trees to produce syrup. The farm now provides an interactive experience on how maple syrup is made. Attendees can drill a tap hole or use a yoke to carry heavy sap buckets.
“We’re going to offer ranger-led tours that will take folks by really the last several hundred years of maple sugaring starting with a reenactment of a small Native American sugaring camp,” said Rowe, supervisory park ranger and public information officer for Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
“Then just a short walk down the trail we’ve got what we call the pioneer site, which has a huge metal kettle as would have been used to boil sap into syrup. Then a little ways down we’ve got the historic Chellberg sugar shack used by the family in their 1930s income.”
The Chesterton Lions Club sells a breakfast of pancakes and pure maple syrup. Also, attendees can compare the taste of pure vs. artificially flavored syrup and purchase pure maple syrup.
“Most people think of pure maple syrup as maybe not quite a luxury but a rather expensive item at $40 or $50 a gallon,” said Rowe, of Chesterton.
“When you go back to the first maple sugar, it was sometimes the difference between surviving a sparse time of year for food. At the end of a long winter those calories that were gained from eating sugar produced from maple trees was really important.
“It also was important for early pioneers who didn’t have access to a grocery store and (for whom) cane sugar could be far away and expensive. It was sugar you could produce locally and on your own. It changed from being important both for survival and as a sweetener to something that we take for granted.”
New to Maple Sugar Time this year is a geocaching trail. People can use global positioning system coordinates to visit several sites and answer questions to get a free prize.
More maple fun
Friendship Botanic Gardens, 2055 E. U.S. 12, Michigan City, hosts Maple Sugar Time from noon-3 p.m. March 5. Originally scheduled for Feb. 26, the annual maple sugaring demonstration was postponed due to warm weather. Information: 219-879-9885 or www.friendshipgardens.org (hover over Events, click on Upcoming Events)
Deep River County Park, 9410 Old Lincoln Highway, Hobart, hosts Maple Syrup Time from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. March 11-12 and 18-19. The free program includes tapping maple trees, the sugar shack where sap is boiled, voyageur-era volunteers making maple syrup over a fire, Wood’s Historic Grist Mill and making a mokuk for carrying sap. Information: 219-769-7275 or www.lakecountyparks.com.
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Maple Sugar Time
When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. March 4-5 and 11-12
Where: Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore’s Chellberg Farm, on Mineral Road between U.S. 20 and U.S. 12, Porter
Admission: free
Information: 219-395-1882 or www.nps.gov/indu
