Malabar farm in Ohio has been my favorite place on earth since I was a little girl. Its a state park that was once the home of Louis Broomfield. He practiced different farming techniques to improve the soil and keep it from eroding. Mr.Broomfied kept his land in pristine condition. The woods there are like no other woods around. There is just something about it that makes it looked untouched. Its just a beautiful park. I have purchased a few of his books, ones mainly about Malabar Farm. His daughter Ellen has written some books also. I just bought The Heritage at an antique shop a few weekends ago. There were alot of interesting stories in there.
There are a few festivals and events that take place every year at Malabar Farm. Early in March is the Maple Syrup Festival. Every year they make maple syrup there and you can go and watch them boil it down and turn it into syrup. We drove up to Mansfield to go to the festival. It was a beautiful weekend and I was just in heaven there at Malabar Farm even if it was muddy.
Here comes our ride to take us up the dirt road and back
into the woods to the sugar shack.
collecting sap with the bucket
This picture to me is just heaven
A native American was telling about how his people used to make maple syrup
they would heat rocks in a fire and put it in a log like this that had sap in it
and boil it down into syrup
this guys is making maple sugar
Boiling the sap down in the sugar shack
the steam going up and out the top of the sugar shack
my sample of maple syrup
a new way to collect sap
this is a much more efficient way to collect sap
we bought a half a gallon of the stuff and it was still warm!
