Maple Festival 4-20-23

To the Bath-Mobile!

Chardon PT Hopes to Wash Away Reigning Champ Smile Center in Annual Bathtub Race

By Rose NemuNaitis editoR@kaRlovecmedia com

David Nelson, owner of Chardon Physical Therapy, is hoping to make a big splash at this year’s Geauga County Maple Festival.

Nelson and his team will be making their inaugural run in the festival’s fan-favorite event on wheels, the Bathtub Races on Sunday.

“I feel like an event like the bathtub race was designed for a business like ours because it is such a fun and active event in the center of our community,” Nelson said. “Community involvement is really important to our practice and we demonstrate the importance through the work we do with the (Chardon Area Chamber of Commerce), (Chardon Square Association), as well as our podcast, Chardon BIZ, where we interview local business owners in and around Chardon to capture their story to share.”

Nelson hopes to have his own winning bathtub race story to share as he puts the work into constructing his all-important castiron racer at his home in Hambden Township.

“I wish I could say I have a master plan with building our bathtub,” Nelson said. “We are currently in the process of designing and we are having assistance from a few great local folks like Dave Johnson, (owner) of Mapledale Farms.”

He has been a spectator at past races and has learned it’s all about the turn as contes-

tants steer and push the bathtub 250 feet down Main Street in Chardon Square to a turn-around point and back.

“I do know that the use of a standard bike wheel in the front is not a good idea because of the weight these cast-iron bathtubs carry,” Nelson said.

Once built, the team will practice behind their studio located on Fifth Avenue.

“Our driver will be our administrator, Chelsey Stone, and my co-pusher is our other physical therapist, Courtney Crawford,” Nel son said. “We are excited to have the oppor tunity to add to the excitement the bathtub race has drawn for many years. I am also ex cited to see how my two boys – Wyatt, 5, and Eli, 2 — will want to be involved.”

Nelson will also be up against the winnin gest team in recent history, Dr. Brian Titus’s Chardon Smile Center, which began racing in 2011.

“We’ve been pretty competitive every year since then, so most years, we’re proba bly in the top two-three favorites,” Titus said.

“Every year we’ve raced, we’ve won at least one of the three categories outright, and when we didn’t win, we at least placed and brought home a plaque for second or third. I believe we’ve won the main event seven times, the ‘over-30’ five times and the wom en’s event four times.”

Last year was their first year taking firstplace in all three categories.

Chardon Physical Therapy owner Dave Nelson’s kids join in the fun of constructing a racing bathtub to compete in this year’s fan-favorite bathtub races down Main Street. “Once we have wheels on, 2-year-old Eli will be first up to see if he gets the job for steering,” Nelson said.

See Bathtub • Page 5

Geauga Library Events

Photography Contest Open for Submissions

The Geauga County Public Library encourages local photographers to showcase their talents in the library system’s fourth annual Photography Contest.

Composed of two juried categories, the contest is open to both Geauga County teens, ages 12 – 17, and adults, ages 18 and older. Contest submissions went live on April 3 and will remain available to the public for submissions through April 28. All entrants’ photographs must adhere to the accepted photograph guidelines and may be entered through the 2023 Photography Contest submission form found on the website.

Contest submissions will be displayed on the library’s website for the public to view and vote for starting on May 5 through May 18. Enter one’s finest, funniest or wackiest photographs for the chance to win the contest and have the work displayed at a local Geauga County Public Library branch.

Visit the website for a comprehensive list of contest rules and guidelines.

Pancake Breakfast

GCPL Calls All Cooks

On July 9, 1963, at the request of the Chardon Public Library’s board of officials, three of the four independently operating libraries in Geauga County joined forces to create the Geauga County Public Library system. To celebrate the historic achievement 60 years later, Geauga County Public Library is calling all local cooks and bakers to help the library compile a celebratory cookbook with 60 different recipes.

Library patrons may submit their most beloved recipes on the library system’s homepage at or through a physical form located at every library branch. Submissions will be accepted through May 30. To have a recipe considered for the cookbook, please limit submissions to two per patron and include all pertinent cooking information in the submission form so that others may successfully recreate the dish.

Limited copies of the community cookbook will be available to library patrons at Geauga County Public Library’s 60th Anniversary Party on Aug. 12 at Veterans Legacy Woods in Newbury Township. Limited copies will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Community

April 29 and 30, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Pilgrim Christian Church will host an all-you-eat pancake and sausage breakfast during the Maple Festival at the church located at 202 S. Hambden St. in Chardon. Cost is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and $5 for children. Children under 5 eat for free.

Spring Drive-It-Yourself Tour

May 6, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Join Destination Geauga’s 19th annual self-guided tour of Geauga County businesses. Each stop offers either a discount, giveaway or sample to enjoy. Pick up a map of participating businesses and collect a stamp at each stop.

At the end of the tour, head to Century Village’s Bond building in Burton for the finale with music, food and a chance to win prizes from local businesses. Those who have visited 10 or more participating businesses will be entered to win the grand prize. Drawings begin at 4 p.m. For more information and the list of participating businesses, call 440-632-1538 or visit www.destinationgeauga.com.

Bathtub

from page 3

“Anything we win, we donate back to the community, whether it’s the festival or a local group or charity,” Titus added.

Chardon Smile has used the same tub since 2011, given to them by one of their pa tients.

“The only modifications we made were some stickers and paint,” Titus said. “We actually won best of show in 2011, our first year.”

He said it is important the tub is robust enough to make it through the race.

“Every year, one or two tubs bend or break a wheel. It’s a lot of weight throwing a cast iron tub around a 180-degree turn,” Ti tus said. “Your pushers need to be fast and usually the race is won or lost at the turn.”

In addition to the race, he looks forward to the entire atmosphere surrounding that Sunday at the maple festival.

“The smells bring back great memories of growing up half a mile down the street,” Ti tus said. “We always have most of our dental team participate in the race, pancake breakfast afterward, the syrup auction, the parade and finally, dinner somewhere around town. I really missed it when the pandemic shut the festival down for those two years. I’m really happy we’re all back.”

Titus shared a tidbit of history before his team began competing.

“They used to dump a pail of water on the racers at the turn,” Titus said. “They stopped when it was determined to be too dangerous, but I’m betting it was quite humorous…

“Finally, rain or shine, the crowds for the bathtub races are usually pretty big. You

pretty exciting. If you haven’t ever been, I suggest you come out early on Sunday morning and check it out. I guarantee you’ll be entertained.”

Chardon Smile is planning on entering three teams, one in each division, and is hoping to continue its success over the past 14 years.

Nelson said he looks forward to the friendly competition.

“Winning would make the next year’s that much more fun because I know Dr. Titus will have a few words to share with us the entire year,” he added. “Which will likely enhance our personal and professional relationship no doubt.”

Lumberjack Competition

The lumberjack competition will be held on Saturday and Sunday during the week of the festival at the north end of Chardon Square. Each year this competition has grown into a real crowd pleasing event.

The competition is made up of 12 different contests, seven of which are chainsaw, two cross cutting contests, an axe throwing competition and a chopping competition.

Both men and women can participate in

all of these events. The jack and jill race involves one man and one women on each team competing to see who can saw through their designated piece of wood the fastest.

Contestants come from Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York. Some of the contestants have been on the Stihl Timbersports Series. This year organizers will be giving out at least $4,800 in prize money.

KMG FILE PHOTO

A contestent in a past Lumberjack Competition cuts through the competition.

HS Research Study Reveals Sweet Results for Home-Producers

By Rose NemuNaitis editoR@kaRlovecmedia com

Maple syrup signs dot the landscape of Geauga County.

Growing up on the Chardon-Concord border, Mentor High School senior Caden Coleman has seen signs in front of houses advertising maple syrup his entire life.

“As I was thinking about ideas for my AP (Advanced Placement) research project, I knew I wanted to collect data through scientific experimentation because I love science and have always been particularly interest-

ed in biology,” Coleman said. “Maple syrup seemed like a natural choice because of its widespread availability in our area.”

He became curious about whether home-produced maple syrup would have more bacteria than mass-produced syrup found in grocery stores.

“I actually thought the home-produced syrup might be more prone to bacteria growth, but that was not the case,” Coleman said. “One reason may be that mass-produced syrup has more people and equipment involved in the process and that could potentially result in

Mentor High School senior Caden Coleman presents the sweet results of a Geauga County maple syrup research study.

from page 8

more contamination in the process of creating the syrup.”

Coleman conducted a study for his AP research class last year and his findings were recently published in the Journal of Student Research.

For AP research, students identify a gap in current scholarly research and conduct their own study to fill the gap.

“My study finds that there are more health benefits to home-produced maple syrup because there is less harmful bacteria and dangers posed to consumers,” Coleman said. “This allows local maple syrup enjoyers to maximize their benefits when purchasing syrup. I did this study because I have always seen roadside stands selling maple syrup and wondered how this syrup compares to storebought in terms of health and safety.

“I found studies on bacteria growth in commercially-produced maple syrup, but there was no research on home-produced syrup or any research comparing mass-produced and home-produced syrup.”

Coleman discovered a list of Geauga County maple syrup producers online and went to five of them — Maple Valley Sugarbush, Sugarbush Creek Farm, Mapledale Farm, the produce stand on the corner of Auburn Road and U.S. Route 6, and Roseum Farms — to purchase samples for his study.

He put the samples in Petri dishes and got permission from his AP Biology teacher to use the incubator in the classroom.

They had three snow days during Coleman’s data collection, so he had to get per-

Testingmission from the principal and his teacher to go to school to check on the samples and record data on the bacterial colony growth.

Coleman’s results showed the home-produced syrup he tested contained significantly less bacteria growth in Geauga County home-produced maple syrup versus industrially-produced maple syrup purchased in grocery stores.

In addition, his preliminary research found maple syrup has health benefits as a natural sweetener with antioxidant properties and an increasing number of studies recommend using it.

Coleman said he looks forward to going to this year’s Geauga County Maple Festival, like he and his family do almost every year.

He has attended every maple sugaring weekend at Lake Metroparks Farmpark in Kirtland since as far back as he can remember and has always been interested in hearing about the tree-tapping and production process involved in the creation of the syrup.

“My family has a tradition where we go to the Farmpark, get the warm maple syrup, and come home and make pancakes,” Coleman said.

He will be attending Washington University in St. Louis and plans to major in evolutionary biology and minor in English on a pre-med track.

“I feel like my study is good news for home-producers of maple syrup because it provides evidence that suggests that syrup produced at home contains less bacteria than syrup from stores,” Coleman said. “Anyone who has ever wondered about the quality of home-produced syrup can rest assured that buying maple syrup locally is a safe choice.”

The Terrific Maple Tree

The maple tree can be referred to as the King of the Forest. Maple trees can grow just about anywhere in the world but the King rules around the Great Lakes and eastern Canada. It is here that it provides a unique, truly American product, maple syrup.

In the fall the maple tree, along with other hardwoods, bursts into an explosion of color. The leaves on the trees become brilliant red, soft yellow or vibrant orange. Slowly the leaves fall and winter arrives. With the arrival of spring, magic starts in the tree.

The maple tree is an amazing natural sugar making factory. In a simple explanation, the tree uses energy from the sun – solar energy – to make a sweet, watery liquid called sap. Sugar mixes with water that the tree’s roots have absorbed from the ground to make the sap.

This sap flows through the tree and feeds it and helps it to grow and stay healthy. This process stops in the fall but begins again in

the spring when the sap begins flowing once more.

There are many kinds of maple trees, but the sugar maple produces the most sap. There are other high sap producing maples include the black maple, red maple and silver maple. Maple trees produce sweeter sap than other trees, and there is more of it and it runs for longer periods of time. This is where the warm days and cold nights of spring help in the process.

It takes about forty to eighty years for a maple tree to grow big enough to be tapped for sap collection. The size of the trunk determines the number of taps that will be made to keep the tree healthy. So the next time you take a walk in the woods look up and see the maple tree spread out protecting you. Enjoy the lovely colors of fall knowing that when it awakens in the spring it will be busy making you maple syrup.

Tips for Cooking With Maple

• Before returning maple syrup to the refrigerator, rinse the cap in hot water and wipe the top of the jug so the cap will be easier to remove the next time.

• Maple syrup can be stored in the freezer for long lengths of time. Put in clean container and seal tightly.

• Should maple syrup develop a bit of mold in the top, remove the mold and bring the syrup to a boil. Put in clean container and seal tightly.

• When substituting maple syrup for sugar in cooking, use only three-fourths the amount of maple syrup as sugar in the recipe.

• Warm it up! To make your maple syrup go farther on pancakes, warm the syrup up first so it thins out. Heat syrup in a saucepan over low heat, and then spoon it out. You can also warm in the microwave on high for 30 to

60 seconds.

• It doesn’t hurt to have a “special” pitcher to use when enjoying syrup on your food. They can add a splash of color to the table setting and make a routine breakfast special.

• Maple syrup can be added to grits, steel-cut oats or any breakfast cereal.

• Besides tasting good, pure maple syrup offers some nutritional benefits. It has only about 50 calories per tablespoon, it contains calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and iron. It also has trace amounts of B2 (riboflavin), B5 (pantothenic acid), niacin and folic acid. What it does not contain is cholesterol.

• Maple syrup has a way of bringing out the best in meats. To enhance the flavor, add maple syrup to glaze used on ham, pork, chicken or fish.

Judging Geauga County Maple Syrup: It’s Sweet and Serious Business

By JohN kaRlovec JohN@kaRlovecmedia com

Every year, typically in February, but as early as late January, when Northeast Ohio experiences freezing nights and slightly warmer days, maple syrup producers throughout Geauga County work day and night to collect sap, boil it and bottle it.

Many enter their work in the annual Geauga County Maple Festival Syrup Contest. The prize: Maple Syrup Fame.

But not all maple syrup is created equal. The flavors of maple syrup can vary from producer to producer, from various production systems, from different production areas, from year to year with a single producer and even from specific woodlots.

One only needs to serve as a maple syrup judge to experience the range of flavor diversity.

Last week, on April 12, Bob Rogish, James Miller and Jason Grossman met in a back room at Richards Maple Products in Chardon to judge this year’s in-county producers in three categories: Golden, Amber and Dark.

Lined up on a table in front of the judges were more than 150 entries, including in-county and out-of-county producers. In a contest the syrup samples being judged are anonymous to the judges. To determine the best syrup, judges check the four basic variables of

all quality maple syrup: density, clarity, color, and flavor.

“This was probably one of the biggest contests we’ve had. There were more entries this year than we’ve had in a long time,” said Rogish, who owns and operates Rogish Farm in Chester Township with his wife, Amy. He also is farm manager for Patterson Farms.

Just in the Geauga County producer class es there were approximately 72-77 entries.

“It tells us we had a great syrup year in Geauga County. The season was long and people made a lot of syrup,” he said, adding Patterson Farm produced double the amount of maple syrup as its largest year.

Rogish explained the judges grade each entry as if it were their own, although being judges none of the three compete in the con test.

“I would say there were more of the am ber syrups entered than the other classes,” he added. “And there was a lot of very ideal tasting syrup.”

Rogish prefers amber syrup on pancakes, which is the typical maple syrup used for pan cakes. Miller, on the other hand, likes golden on pancakes, even if it doesn’t have the rich maple flavor of amber syrup. Golden typically is used to make candy and other confections. The dark typically is used for cooking and flavorings.

The competition was tough this year, Rogish said.

“If you look at the scores, the top seven places, there was only like a five or six point difference between first place and seventh place,” he said. “It was tight and there was tie-breaker criteria we followed. There were

a lot of very close scores.”

Producers will tell you maple syruping is not easy.

“You want to boil that sap as fast as you

From left, judges Bob Rogish, James Miller and Jason Grossman grade in-county producers syrup for the 2023 contest.

Judging from page 12

can,” Rogish said. “So, if it doesn’t start running until noon, because it warms up at noon, and it runs until 8 o’clock at night, some guys are out there boiling it right away because they don’t want the sap to sit overnight.”

Rogish also explained the vacuum systems with tubing afford producers a longer season because the tap is protected from bacteria.

“Bacteria is what slows the tree down,” he said. “Just like getting a cut in your arm, when you naturally heal it, it’s going to slow down the running. So if you keep a sterile system, closed system, to that tree it’s going to stay open and produce more sap.”

He added there is not necessarily a difference in the quality or sweetness of sap collected in buckets or closed systems, or whether the sap is run through a reverse osmosis system.

“At the end of the game, you want to get the water out of the sap as fast as you can do it,” said Rogish.

Miller, owner of Sugar Valley Maple in Middlefield Township, has described maple syruping as a “very intense” endeavor with “a lot of sleep loss.”

Maple producers universally say to be successful “you have to be all over it,” “you have to be there 100 percent” and “there’s no sleeping in the corner.”

Miller echoed Northeast Ohio producers had a very good season. For Miller, it was his best year since 2013.

“Compared to the last two years, it was phenomenal,” he said. “It was a banner year for golden and amber, and throughout Maple

Nation there wasn’t as much dark made be cause everyone was making more amber and the golden.”

Miller’s sugarbush has 3,000 taps and they made 1,695 gallons.

“That is 6 pounds per tap, which the last couple of years we did not get that,” he said, adding at his sugarhouse he can boil 480 gal lons of sap an hour at 10% concentrate. “And there’s people in the area that did better than that.”

Miller explained maple syrup producers are selling flavor and once boiling sap reaches a density of 66.7 bricks — or 66.7 percent sugar — the sap has been transformed into maple syrup and should be drawn off, filtered and bottled.

“Maple syrup is all temperature,” he ex plained. “Most of the time, syrup is around 218 (degree), right in that area. It’s tricky. It’s one of the hardest things, to get your density just right.”

Miller has been judging maple syrup for nearly a decade.

“There was a lot of syrup to sample this year,” he said. “To me that’s exciting. It’s exciting to have that many entries.”

He explained producers tend not to enter the competition if they feel it was not a good syruping season.

“But this year, a lot of people made good quality syrup and that’s why they entered the contest,” he said. “They all had confidence they had some good syrup and they entered which is great. I like to see that.”

Like most producers, Miller said he tapped the first part of February, but his season was over shortly after St. Patrick’s Day.

“So it was relatively short,” he said, adding he thinks relatively warmer and dryer weather in early February dried the taps up earlier. “Some people re-tap, but to me it’s not worth

it. That’s a lot of work going back out.”

Like Rogish, Miller said it is hard to judge the top syrups.

“We had a lot of golden and most of that golden was very good quality, good tasting syrup,” he said. “And as always, it hard to pick out those top 10. We have seven awards and those top 10 are really very competitive. The color, the clarity, the density, that will usually eliminate some of them. Then it comes down to the flavor.”

In the hobby and novice classes, Miller said there were more entries but the quality wasn’t quite as good. His son, Toby, helps judge that class and said a lot of the syrup had an off-flavor.

Off-flavors such butterscotch, metal, bleach or soap can negatively influence a syr-

up’s flavor grade. Miller explained anything added to sap, even in minute quantities, will become concentrated as the sap is boiled to syrup, causing an off flavor.

That is why you should never use rusty spiles or buckets to collect sap, or soaps, bleaches or detergents to clean pans.

As for the future of the industry, Miller said sometimes he feels like it’s a dying art. Not many people show up to Ohio Producers of Northeast Ohio meetings — and there is not a lot of members.

“But there are still a lot of backyard producers who make good quality syrup off the radar,” said Miller. Winners of the 2023 Maple Syrup Contest will be announced at the Maple Hall of Fame Brunch at Mary Yoder’s Amish Kitchen in Middlefield.

SUBMITTED

From left, judges Bob Rogish and James Miller evaluate the color and clarity of golden syrup as David Patterson and Jason Grossman check the density of syrup as Roger Roseum records scores.

A Peek into Our Past…

The Geauga County Maple Festival was the idea of Art Carlson, a local merchant on Chardon square. Carlson wanted to increase awareness of maple syrup production as well as the price, which at that time, was sold for 50 cents a gallon. When Carlson told some friends about his idea they started planning the first Geauga County Maple Festival.

The Maple Festival was founded in 1926 in an attempt to market Ohio syrup in com-

petition with Vermont syrup. The Geauga County News announced that Chardon was “Going to treat the general public to a good old fashioned maple sugar eat.” The event featured free dishes of maple syrup, a sugar camp, tapped trees, and ox team gathering sap, and a maple products display.

The below excerpt is from 1936 newspaper coverage of the festival, courtesy of “A Scrapbook of the Geauga County Maple Festival” by Shirley Stafford Boehmer and Angie Bartel.

2023: A Season to Remember

The 2023 maple season was definitely one to remember. The state as a whole was average or slightly below average, but Geauga County was a record year for most producers.

We at Seldom Seen Farm had a record year. We tapped trees on Jan. 25 (the earliest ever) and the season lasted until March 27. We had 22 boils for the year, the first was Feb. 2 and the last was March 27.

The quality of the sap was very good as well which made some of the best and generally speaking lighter in color maple syrup across the county and state.

We at Seldom Seen Farm produced just over half a gallon, or 5.5 pounds, of syrup per tree tapped as the season total.

The weather, which plays a huge role, had many ups and downs, which is what we need for the sap to run. With no extended periods of deep freeze this past winter, many sugarmakers were on the fence about how the season was going to shape up.

We tapped during one of the freezes at Seldom Seen Farm and are glad we did. It warmed above freezing early in February, creating those ideal conditions for sap production and very light maple syrup was produced.

The second week of production was right on point for an average maple season, just earlier than past years. Going into the third week was impressive, producing incredible maple syrup with huge sap runs, always filling our tanks, knowing that early it just might be a record year if it keeps up.

Mid-season we had a slight drought, which slowed the sap down a little, giving a much needed break for production. Moving into the fourth week, production picked right back up with heavy rains, heavy snow and the

freeze-thaw patterns needed for record production. These weather patterns would stay consistent for the remainder of the season in Geauga county and would come to a close by late March and early April.

Statewide, maple farms had a wide range of reports. The weather in the central and southern part of the state was dry, windy and had high barometric pressure, which does not allow the trees to “run” or harvest much sap.

Producers who utilized tubing and vacuum had an average to slightly below average season for the central and northern central part of the state, while south of Columbus had a poor season as a whole.

Producers who use buckets and bags also are reporting their season statewide was below average, with a very short window to produce syrup, some as little as 2-3 weeks.

Be sure to sure to support your local maple producers this season and attend the Geauga County Maple Festival syrup auction to bid on the top 21 contest winners on Sunday, April 30 at 12 noon at the main grandstand.

Kevin Holy Seldom Seen Farm LLC

Seldomseenmaple.com

Editor’s Note: Kevin Holy sits on the Ohio Maple Producers Association board of directors.

What a remarkable year for us at Pleasant Valley View Farm. We started early in February and our last boil was April 1. We made a lot more syrup than usual, of all grades. This season will definitely be a hard one to beat.

Chris Humpal Pleasant Valley View Farm

Maple Festival Events

Carnival Rides

The Geauga County Maple Festival features rides for all ages. Individual tickets and wristbands are available every day. Wristband pricing is as follows:

Thursday: 4-10 p.m. – $20

Friday: All day (10 a.m. to 11 p.m.) – $25

Saturday: All day (10 a.m. to 11 p.m.) – $25

Sunday: All day (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.) – $25

Kiddie Tractor Pull

The Kiddie Tractor Pull is open to all kids ages 5 - 11. The tractor pull is Saturday, April 29 at 11 a.m.

Registration takes places on Main Street in front of the entertianment stage at 10 a.m.

The pull takes place in front of the stage. Winners are eligible to compete at the Ohio State Championships.

Pancakes in the Park

All you can eat pancakes will be available Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Adults are $10; children under 6 are free with a paying adult.

Meals are always served with real Geauga County maple syrup, all you can eat pancakes with 2 sausage links and choice of drink. Pancakes in the Park is run solely by the Geauga County Festival Board.

Any profit from the pancake tent is returned to the general fund of the Maple Festival, which allows the board to bring the festival back each year.

Tug of War

The Tug of War Contest will take place in front of the Fire Station on Saturday, April 29 at 12 p.m. There is no cost to register.

The first place prize is $500, second place is $300 and third place is $100. Teams are to consist of members not weighing more than 1,200 pounds.

Sap Run

Welcome to the Geauga County Maple Festival Sap Run! Join in on April 30 at 8 a.m.

for the 1-mile and 8:30 a.m. for the 5-mile.

Packet pickup and race day registration will take place at the Maple Festival Main Stage. Awards will be done at the same location immediately following the race.

Pre-registration is $15 for the 1-mile and $30 for the 5-mile. Register online at: https:// register.chronotrack.com/r/72869

Day-of registration is $20 for the 1-mile and $40 for the 5-mile.

Opening/Closing

Festival opening/closing times are as follows (weather permitting):

Thursday Noon - 10 p.m.

Friday 10 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Saturday 10 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Sunday 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

The Grand Parade

Grand Parade

The Grand Parade takes place on Saturday and Sunday of the Maple Festival. The parade showcases many local companies, city officials and other city groups. The local high schools dance team and cheerleaders participate as well as the King and Queen of the Maple Festival and other state festivals.

Most of the rides are not in operation during the Parade.

Come line the streets of the square while those participating throw candy or other goodies to the crowd.

Swifty the Clown

Swifty the Clown will perform starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 29. Ranked among the top balloon professionals in the country, he has over 3000 astounding and amazing balloon creations in his repertoire, all available for your event or party. If you can imagine it, Swifty can create it and create it well. It’s not just for kids, Swifty can entertain audiences of all ages, particularly those with an eye for lifelike visual art.

Don’t Miss Jungle Terry

Tappin’ Sunday

Always the first Sunday in March!

The celebration of Maple Syrup begins on Tappin’ Sunday which usually occurs on the 1st Sunday in March. This year it was March 5.

This includes the tapping of all the maple trees on Chardon Square to have syrup for

the festival. To tap a tree, you must drill a hole in the tree to start. Then you must tap the spile and hang the bucket from the tree.

The sap collected from Tappin’ Sunday is then taken to the Chardon Square Sugar house where it is turned into Maple syrup stirs for customers to enjoy.

FILE PHOTO

Jungle Terry will perform Saturday, April 29, at 1 p.m. He does educational animal shows for birthday parties, schools and many other special events.

2023 GCMF Royalty

Lucy Allin

Queen Eleanor Ramos, 1st Attendant Hannah Benesh, 2nd Attendant Allison Blasko, Court Member Tonille Decipeda, Court Member Abigail Ritosa, Court Member Abigail Wroblewski, Junior Queen Phoebe Auth, Young Miss Piper Giess, 1st Attendant Isabelle Armstrong, 2nd Attendant Madalyn Reynoso, Little Miss Mary Kate Charmley, 1st Attendant Gabrielle Armstrong, Prince Sean Walsh, Princess Molly Walsh and Princess Court Aurielle Armstrong.

Maple Festival Schedule of Events

2023 Festival Schedule

End of the Season Report

By les oBeR aNR exteNsioN educatoR, GeauGa

I think everyone would agree the winter of 2022/2023 was anything but normal. It started with a fierce snowstorm in late December and ended with a mixture of warm and cold days.

If you are a maple syrup producer, this is what you are supposed to look for. However, this winter was either too warm or not cold enough. Those 20 degree nights followed by 40 degree days were spaced far apart. When the sap did flow, it was like a maple tsunami, coming in by the truck loads. Depending on where you live and when you tapped, this year was either all good or all bad.

In the northern half of the state, production levels ranged from average to outstanding. In the southern half, the season came early and ended early, with productions ranging from below average to poor at best.

Once again, the weather and Mother

Nature had the final say. The season kicked off early due to warm weather that came in shortly after New Year’s. Producers in both northern and southern Ohio started tapping by the middle of January. Others waited until Feb. 1 to tap. The average length of the season was approximately 40 days. Those tapping in early January would see strong runs into February, but after that the sap flow declined. Those tapping in February either had a very good season or a very poor season depending on their location in the state.

The warm weather in February was the culprit. The jet stream split the state, with below normal temperatures to the north and above normal temperatures to the south. The result was the best season in decades for the north and one of the worst years in recent memory for producers in southern Ohio.

The 2023 season was a good year for quality with a lot of Golden and Amber being produced. The flavor was excellent for the most part, until the warm weather turned the flavor to Dark Strong. Even then, a lot of Golden was made right up until the end.

In Geauga County, multiple production records were set for individual sugaring operations.

It was not uncommon to see a half gallon up to one gallon of syrup per tap being produced. Once again, the best yields were achieved on high vacuum tubing systems, but the bucket/bag brigade had a good season as well.

Geauga Producers have built their reputation on making light-colored good tasting syrup. There will be plenty of that to go around this year. Be assured there will be no shortage of Pure Maple Syrup, especially in Geauga County. As for the rest of the U.S. and Canada, it is too early to determine who the winners and the losers will be.

The Geauga County Maple Festival will be held April 27-30. The weather is predicted to be excellent for the festival. Come on out, enjoy the fun and support your local maple producers who make some of the best Pure Maple Syrup and Maple Products in North America.

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