A ride to Meyersdale for the Pennsylvania Maple Festival is a spring rite.Conducted by the citizens of this quiet mountain town along the Great Allegheny Passage near the Maryland border for four generations, it starts gently and picks up steam, reaching a full boil by the second weekend.
Folks are happy to leave their hibernaculums and stand blinking in the sunshine on the flattened grass.
I walked around doing a little blinking myself, ate a stack of pancakes sweetened with the local product, and drove back over the mountain to tend to my own operation. In the process I learned that maple water should be boiled to a temperature of 219 degrees to make it syrup that won't spoil. Either that or to a weight of 11 pounds/gallon.
I tap a few trees every March, using a 3/8" bit (at a slight upward angle) and pushing in a spile cut from an elderberry bush with the pith pushed out. I also learned that the tree heals itself within six weeks after you pull out the spile.
And I learned that I could have picked up a handful of walnuts that the red squirrels hadn't plucked from the yard, entered them on a picnic plate, and maybe won second prize.
If you like Americana, old-time music, and maple syrup, visit. You'll talk about it all week.
Click on any of the pictures for a little better view.
copyright 2010 by J. O'Brien, all rights reserved
