Syrup Season – How Sweet It Was!

When the sap runs, we celebrate! Cincinnati Parks responds to the earliest promise of spring with maple sugar programs that culminate in two popular pancake breakfast celebrations.

This year’s Maple in Mt. Airy sold out all regular breakfast seatings, and had to add an extra session.  Almost 400 people enjoyed a hearty breakfast of sausage and all-you-can-eat pancakes drenched with their choice of real maple syrup or table syrup. The event is open to everyone, and while families and adults came for the food and the fun, this breakfast has become a favorite activity with Girl Scouts. Troops filled three of the seatings by October of 2007.  After breakfast, participants took a hay wagon ride to the Arboretum Center, where costumed naturalists explained the scientific magic behind maple’s sugar, and how sap has been turned into syrup over the centuries.

Much to the disappointment of maple lovers on Cincinnati’s east side, Pancakes in the Woods 2008 had to be cancelled due to the big March snowstorm. In its 30+-year history, this was only the second time that California Woods’ popular event had to cancel.

Both celebration breakfasts will return when the sap flows in 2009. Mark your calendars now for Maple in Mt. Airy 2009 on Saturday, March 7. Pancakes in the Woods will be held on Sunday, either March 8 or March 15, 2009.

So why don’t we just have these breakfasts in May or June, when the weather is a bit more predictable? That’s certainly a reasonable question, and if you head out for a walk in the woods, you’ll see the answer in action. Trees make sugar for their own purposes: to fuel growth, especially the tremendous growth spurt required in spring when buds burst open and new leaves, twigs and flowers emerge. As the new growth uses up the sugar, the tree sap becomes increasingly less sweet, even bitter, and totally unfit for syrup. If we tried to tap and celebrate then, well, we wouldn’t get much sap flow and you wouldn’t want to taste it.

Over the next few weeks, you can watch the progress of sugar being converted to tree parts. Choose your favorite trail, and walk it at least once a week (or maybe even daily). Pay special attention to the buds on trees. See how they’re stretccchhhinnggg out until the scales split open, and small leaves appear. Watch how quickly those tiny leaves swell up to full size in a matter of days. Which trees “pop” first? Last? Once out, do all tree leaves grow at about the same rate, or are some speedier than others?

As you walk, take a few minutes to do as the trees do: don’t forget to stretch out before, during and after your hike!

You are welcome to join a Park Naturalist on Sat. March 15 at 10:00 a.m. for an Ault Park Hike (call 751-3679 for information) or bring the children to an active and educational Eggsceptional Eggstravaganza of an egg hunt at Wilson Commons on Sun. March 16, 1:00 p.m. (call 321-6070 for information, reservations). Teens (and their dogs, if desired) can Fitness Walk with Naturalist Olivia Gennett at Armleder Park on Sat. April 5 from 10:00 to noon ($1 fee covers refreshments after the walk; call 861-3435).

On your own, with the family and children, with friends or with a guided Park group – however you choose to go out this spring, head out to experience renewed life. Spring is our most fleeting season, with visible changes daily in the woods: wildflowers emerging at your feet, trees bursting into leaf around you, birds overhead winging their way back from Central America. This is definitely a limited-time-only opportunity. Don’t miss it. Get out and explore.

This page is a preview of our new website! Questions or comments? Email Julie.Horne@cincinnati-oh.gov