A family poses for a picture at the 2024 Maple Festival at Teddy Bear McLean Park in Lima.
Jacob Espinosa | The Lima News
LIMA —Lima residents and visitors came out to Teddy Bear McLean Park on Saturday to take in the Johnny Appleseed Metropolitan Park District’s Maple Festival.
The last installment of the festival came in 2020, but there were plenty of changes this time around.
“We got a pretty good turnout,” naturalist Dan Hodges said. “The weather turned out pretty well for us, but we’re doing things a little bit differently than we’ve done in the past to create more of a festival atmosphere, and we’re really excited about it. I think there is a lot of good feedback from the people, and we’re seeing a lot of smiles around, so it’s been a good day.”
Visitors took self-guided tours through the park to different stations to learn how maple syrup is produced from the sap of sugar maple trees, featuring re-enactors dressed as pioneers and stories of how Native Americans first invented the process.
Deb Springer said that it was a good chance to go into nature and see what it can provide if you just open your eyes.
“I thought it was really nice,” she said. “The kids are really soaking it up.”
It was also a good chance to score some pure syrup that cannot be found in grocery stores.
“We were contacted back in November about the event, and one of the things the park district liked was the idea of us coming to sell maple candy,” said Ken Depuy, of vendor K and J Farms in Arlington. “The biggest thing that I would like to see people take away is the production and support of the syrup industry. It’s dog-eat-dog, and competition is always fierce, but at an adventure like this, you just want people to support the industry rather than just buying my product over my competitors.”
Mark Schofield said he brought his wife, Eden, from Alaska to experience the event he grew up going to.
“I was here as a kid. So all the schools went through here to explain to the kids how they did it, and I’m kind of a veteran,” he said. “She seemed to enjoy it and didn’t realize it was so scientific. It was an interesting educational experience.”
Hodges added, “It’s such a regional product, and that’s why we like to celebrate it here in Ohio and at the park district because the sugar maple tree only grows in this part of northeastern North America. I think it’s a great marriage of learning about cultural and natural history. You have to have the tree, and you have to have the forest and leaves creating the sugars from photosynthesis. From a cultural aspect, we’ve been using maple sap for thousands of years before European settlement, and that process has changed through cultures over centuries.”
To learn more about K and J Farms, visit their Facebook page.
To check out everything else the park district has to offere, visit jampd.com.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
