Saturday, March 9, 2019
We continue to discover new happenings in the Cleveland area!
Consider the
Ohio Maple Madness Driving Trail! There are dozens of locations and you just have to pick and choose.
We went to Hale Farm and Village, where we not only would see maple tree tapping and maple sugar rendering, but also have a pancake breakfast with locally made maple syrup, and visit a living history museum.
 |
The pancake breakfast was sponsored by
Acme Fresh Market, and the supermarket mascot,
Buffy the Dog, made an appearance |
 |
If it was a sugar maple tree with a diameter
of 8-12 inches, it was tapped |
 |
In the maple tree grove, the earliest means of rendering the sap
was demonstrated: rocks were heated and placed in the sap
that was held in wooden troughs |
 |
Frozen and snow-covered waterfall
(it is only about a foot high!) |
 |
| Water trickles under the ice of the stream |
 |
| The 1910 Sugar House of C O Hale |
 |
Inside the sugar house, the sap that is
generally about 98% water is boiled into syrup,
then filtered to remove minerals |
We had a sample of the "syrup" that was like drinking maple sugar candy! SO sweet!
 |
An "educator" demonstrates the use of
a wooden yoke with rope and hooks
to carry pails or buckets |
Hale Farm and Village belongs to the Western Reserve Historical Society. The property was purchased by Jonathan Hale in 1810, and bequeathed to the Society by his great-granddaughter in 1956. Over the next 30 years, historic structures were moved here for preservation and to provide a venue to display historic artifacts and demonstrate early American craft and trade.
 |
| The 1851 John A McAlonan Carriage Manufactory |
 |
Char-a-banc carriage (1885 in Cleveland),
an early sightseeing conveyance |
 |
| Blacksmith |
 |
| c 1812 Aten Log Barn constructed with hand-hewn logs |
 |
| Glass blowing demonstration (he is making a witch's ball) |
 |
| Checkers set outside the General Store |
 |
| The checkers are slices of corn cob! |
 |
| Jonathan Herrick House (1845), from Twinsburg, OH |
 |
Goldsmith House (1831, designed by Jonathan Goldsmith
for William Peck Robinson), from Willoughby, OH |
 |
| One-room School House (1816) from Summitville, OH |
Dear Cousin Mary: We finally have seen the school house from Columbiana County!
 |
| Inside the school house |
 |
| Meetinghouse (1852) from Streetsboro, OH |
 |
| Inside the meetinghouse |
 |
| Jonathan Hale Homestead (1825) |
 |
| A shorn Tunis sheep |
 |
| Bright and Star, the oxen team |
 |
| A pair of Percheron draft horses |
 |
We also visited Greengate Farm, a so-called backyard operation
of maple syrup production |
 |
| A wood-fired evaporator |
The collection of maple sap begins when there is a fluctuation in temperatures above and below freezing each day. (Our polar vortex delayed the season this year!) It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup, and the process can take about eight hours.
 |
Stopped at Romito's in Independence, OH for their
trademark cheeseburger pizza; different... |
No comments:
Post a Comment