Before Howard Jensen, of Fort Dodge, introduced guests at the annual Maple Syrup Festival in John F. Kennedy Memorial Park to his hobby of making syrup from maple sap Saturday afternoon, he let them know it's not very difficult.
"It's so easy," he said. "Even a caveman can do it."
Jensen went on to explain that in the past, pioneer settlers only had three sources of sweeteners; making maple syrup in the spring, collecting honey during the summer and cooking sorghum in the fall to make molasses.
Along with syrup making, the day also included lessons on churning butter, making soap, twisting rope and cooking in Dutch ovens.
"We're going to focus on the skills your pioneer ancestors had to do," he said.
Randy Fisher, of Fort Dodge, brought along several antique butter churns, stamps and an old milk bottle. He explained the process of turning cream into butter involved a lot of labor - and time.
"Butter making, like syrup making, is a long process," he said.
Of course, with syrup in hand and pancakes on the griddle, butter is needed to complete the meal.
"Why would you want pancakes without butter," he asked.
Kenny Powell, of Fort Dodge, has been making soap since 1982. He explained that American Indians were observed to wash clothes in streams along with wood ashes - the source of the lye - along with fats.
Powell uses the same basic ingredients, fats, lye and scents to make his soaps in small batches. While making soap might be easy, he cautioned the audience that one of the ingredients - lye - requires a license to have since it's also used by illicit methamphetamine makers.
Doug Breyfogle and Jim Kramer, leaders in Fort Dodge Boy Scout Troop 8, brought along a collection of Dutch ovens kept busy with baking corn bread and a machine to twist rope which was cut into sections and given away.
Breyfogle is an advocate of cooking in the cast iron ovens.
"When you go camping," he said. "Everybody should have a Dutch oven - even if you have to carry it on your back."
Maple syrup is made by boiling tree sap and evaporating most of the water. Sap contains 1 to 3 percent sugar depending on the trees. With 2 percent sap, 43 gallons of water need to be boiled off to make one gallon of syrup.
Howard Jensen had samples of tree sap available for visitors to sample.
Hannah Schroeder, 16, of Fort Dodge, tried it.
"It was pretty good," she said. "It tasted like it was sweet."
She did think it needed a little more refining though.
"I wouldn't put it on my pancakes," she said.
There was finished maple syrup available to try. Boiled down from trees tapped in the park last season, the sweet treat was served with pancakes cooked up by staff and volunteers.
Matt Bruner, Iowa Department of Natural Resources conservation officer for Webster/Humboldt/Boone and Wright counties was one of many who tried it.
"This is absolutely the best part," he said.
Dan Lychwick, of Fort Dodge, attended the festival to learn about rope making and the syrup making process. He explained that he has a silver maple at home that he would like to harvest sap from.
"Now I can make use of it," he said.
Jacey Ferrell, 12, of Fort Dodge, attended the festival with her parents, Sherri and Kevin. She picked up a little more knowledge.
"You see the trees every day but you don't really think about how it works," she said.
She was also surprised to learn about the sap.
"I didn't know it was clear," she said.
Karen Hansen, Webster County Conservation naturalist, explained that park staff are usually able to begin tapping the trees in February. The sap has only begun running in the last few weeks with the arrival of warm days combined with below freezing nights.
"This is really late," she said.
Contact Hans Madsen at (515) 573-2141 or hmadsen@messengernews.net
