Tap into fun at Maple Sugaring Days
As travelers head east on Chicago Avenue in Naperville, the commercial, downtown stretch gives way to a roadway lined with stately Victorians.
Further east is a row of more modern residences, occasionally interrupted by a business, an office, a school.
As Lisle begins to recede into the distance and Downers Grove comes into view, spaced along the parkways are maple trees, one after another, forming a golden canopy in fall, a heathery mist of new-growth green in spring.
It's not difficult to imagine why, along the way, the roadway's name, Chicago Avenue, changes to Maple Avenue.
"It was named that because the Blodgett family decided to try to start a maple sugarbush business," said Rachel Christian, a history educator at Naper Settlement.
Christian said the trees were planted more than 100 years ago by the Blodgetts, early settlers looking for a way to earn a living on the prairie.
"They lived in Naperville for a while before moving to Downers Grove," she said.
With its harsh winters and relative dearth of indigenous maples, running a maple sugar concern in the Midwest proved more difficult than imagined.
Christian said residents soon opted to make only enough maple sugar to fill their own cupboards and to trade locally, rather than to try to cultivate quantities large enough to ship.
"Vermont still is the leading producer in the states," Christian said.
In Naperville and Downers Grove, she said, "It was more like a hobby. It was something, if they came here from the East, they would know how to do."
The process, originally taught to European settlers in the East and Midwest by Native Americans, will be demonstrated this weekend at Naper Settlement, where several sugar maple trees will be tapped during the settlement's annual Maple Sugaring Days.
Christian said there's a four-to six-week period each spring when the trees' sap flows, usually beginning the first week of March.
"When the sap is flowing the best is when it's cooler at night and warmer during the day," she said.
Sap flows upward from the roots, through the branches, bringing nutrients.
"It's just like our circulatory system," she said.
It stops flowing when its job is done.
"When the tree starts to bud, there's no point in tapping the tree anymore," she said.
Visitors can watch museum educators tap trees at 11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday, March 14, and 2 and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 15. The sap is then boiled over an open fire, a process also on display at the settlement, to turn it into sugar.
Select museum buildings will be open during the event.
And those interested in trying maple sugar can get a taste.
If you go
What: Maple Sugaring Days
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 14, 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 15
Where: Naper Settlement, 523 S. Webster St., Naperville
Admission: $8 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5.50 youth
Info: (630) 420-6010 or napersettlement.museum