Youngstown Daily Legal News

Maple syrup season is sweet to Ohio's tourism industry

RICK ADAMCZAK
Special to the Legal News
Published: March 5, 2013

With the end of winter within sight and warmer days ahead, the maple syrup season soon will be underway.

Maple syrup is big business in the state — Ohio is the nation’s fifth largest producer of the sweet substance.

Piggybacking on the trend of agritourism, Ohio maple syrup makers do more than just sell their jugs of syrup, they’re using events and other products to attract customers and boosting the state’s tourism industry along the way.

Over the course of the next several weekends, maple sugar businesses will open their doors and share their centuries-old methods of producing syrup.

For two weekends next month, sugarhouses will promote their industry with open houses and other events where visitors can see first-hand how pure maple syrup is made.

The March Maple Madness Driving Tour is a statewide event sponsored by the Ohio Maple Producers Association and Ohio syrup makers. This year it is scheduled for March 9-10 and March 16-17.

One of the stops will be Dawes Arboretum in Newark.

Experienced maple syrup makers will be on hand at various locations throughout the state to answer questions during the free, drive-it-yourself tour across Ohio.

Stops include both small backyard ventures and large commercial operations.

On March 9-10 at Hocking Hills State Park there will be exhibits on the many methods used to make syrup from local maple sap. Samples will be available and visitors can enjoy a pancake breakfast at the dining lodge.

The 37th Annual Maple Syrup Festival at Malabar Farm State Park near Mansfield will take place March 9-10.

There will be horse-drawn wagon rides and demonstrations of sugar making through history. Maple syrup, fudge and maple products will be available for purchase.

At Historic Clifton Mill in Clifton visitors daily have a wide choice of pancakes: whole wheat, blueberry, buck wheat, corn meal, apple cinnamon and buttermilk.

The creation of maple syrup hasn’t changed all that much over the years. Some farms employ a little more technology, but the process remains the same.

Maple trees are tapped by boring holes through the bark to a depth to reach the sap, then sap is boiled down to remove the water leaving sweet syrup. Nothing else is added to pure maple syrup.

It takes about 35 to 45 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup and Ohio produces approximately 125,000 gallons of syrup annually, according to the Ohio Maple Producers Association.

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