| History of the Maple Sugar
House
The Sugar House was built to reduce Maple tree sap to a
thick Maple Syrup. The colonist learned this technique from
the Native Americans to sweeten their foods.
The prototype for this sugar house is located in Geauga
County, Ohio. It is in Swine Creek Park off Hayes Road in
Middlefield Township. The Sugar House was built in 1980 to
show visitors how Maple Syrup is made and to preserve the
history of this process. This provides the visitors a close
look at all the work that is necessary to process the sap.
Once the visitor has seen this process they will really enjoy
their pancakes or waffles with Maple Syrup on them.
Early spring workers begin to gather sap from buckets
attached to Maple Trees. The sap is poured into vats attached
to sleds pulled by horses or tractors to the Sugar House. The
sap in these vats is then poured into large tanks that hold up
to 3,000 gallons of sap. 42 gallons of sap is required to make
one gallon of syrup. Wood has been collected from the sugar
bush woods to heat the sap. To reduce sap, you must remove the
water from the sap. Long pans are used to hold the sap while a
fire is built under pans holding the sap to evaporate the
water.
In the spring of 2004 we saw 800 taps being made to sugar
Maple trees. In previous years there has been as many as 1400
taps to the trees. Once the fire under the evaporator has
started, the process will continue until the sap has stopped
flowing.
When you are in the area, stop in and see the prototype at
Swine Creek Park.
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