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Volunteer Sandy Hoying hard at work making waffles during the event.
Darke County Parks
Maple Sugarin’ a Huge Success
On Saturday March 7th, Darke County Parks hosted its annual Maple
Sugarin’ at the Prairie Festival in conjunction the Friends of the
Darke County Parks Waffle Breakfast. Around 640 people enjoyed the
sausage and endless waffle breakfast with coffee, tea, juice, or milk.
This was a record-breaking year, with people lined up through the
entire duration of the event. Fifty volunteers assisted with the
waffle breakfast and festival, making waffles, serving, bussing tables,
taking tickets, staffing the sugar shack, and much, much more. Roger
Van Frank, director of the park district said, “I am continuously
pleased with this event. I enjoy listening to the cabin fever stories
as friends and neighbors reunite after the long winter.”
Throughout the breakfast, park naturalists led tours illustrating the
science, history, and process of making maple syrup, culminating in a
stop at the sugar shack where visitors could see maple sap boiling down
to syrup. Nearly 200 people participated in the sugarbush tours this
year. A backyard sugaring display also illustrated the process on a
much smaller scale. Staff and volunteers were delighted to see such a
large crowd venture out to enjoy the beautiful, sunny weather and to
learn more about Ohio’s cultural heritage. After the tour, everyone was
encouraged to meander down the trail to the blacksmith shop and log
house where historical volunteers were treating callers to a taste of
history with samples of onion pie, beef tongue, and life on the
frontier.
Throughout the sugaring season volunteers collected around 3,000
gallons of sap from two private locations and boiled that down to over
300 pints of syrup. Before the festival, about 200 school children also
visited the park to learn about this sweet treat and even sample a
little of it.
The Park District and Friends would like to thank the following
business for their donations: the New Madison Kiwanis Club for the use
of their sausage trailer and club members to cook sausage, The Butcher
Block and Smokehouse for donating the delicious sausage for the fourth
year straight, Historical Bear’s Mill for the Boston Stoker’s coffee,
and Kitchenaid for their donation of waffle makers in 2015 which have
continued to allow the making of the waffles so much easier and faster.
Also, a huge thank you to all of the generous volunteers that donated
supplies for the breakfast and log house samples. The Friends wish to
extend apologies for the delay near the end of the breakfast when they
ran out of sausage briefly. It was a huge success!
The Darke County Park District would like to thank the volunteers who
donated countless hours helping with collecting and boiling sap, the
waffle breakfast, helping with the school groups, and doing historical
interpretation.
Make sure to mark the calendar for next year’s Maple Sugarin’ at the Prairie, March 6th, 2021!
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