Brian Whitted helped his children push taps into a tree. The kids hammered them in deeper with a wooden block. After a moment’s hesitation, the taps released the clear sap in slow drips that eventually became a steady stream of liquid pouring into the buckets hung underneath.
Whitted, his two sons, Alex, 9, and Jacob, 7, and their grandmother Denise Rathert ate breakfast at Creekside Retreat on Saturday before joining many others in hunting for maple trees in an effort to collect sap.
The family participated in Tap the Town, the opening weekend event for the National Maple Syrup Festival taking place in Brown County State Park March 5-6. This is the first time the family has attended the event, but the second year the event took place at Brown County.
The Whitted children ran frantically from tree to tree looking into the taps to see if the sap was draining.
The event is organized by the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau, but the executive director, Jane Ellis, said she hopes to create a board specifically for Tap the Town in the future.
“I am absolutely fascinated by how much I have learned,” Ellis said. “It’s something everyone can relate to — everyone relates to maple syrup.”
While Whitted, his sons and his mother-in-law ate breakfast, two maple syrup enthusiasts Mike Smith and IU grad James VanTassel gave a lesson on maple syrup, including its history to its modern uses.
During the speech, Rathert clarified points to her grandchildren in whispers.
“Did you see that?” she said. “Do you know how that works?”
Rathert’s question was regarding the hydrometer Smith was showing to the crowd. A hydrometer is a small instrument that measures the sugar content during the syrup-making process.
Rathert and the Whitteds were given metal buckets that contained information about upcoming festivals, a map to locate the maple trees and a 5/16-inch tap.
The speech lasted a little over an hour before the family was able to witness their first tree-tapping by VanTassel. He drilled a hole in a tree located next to Creekside Retreat and put in the tap — water dribbled out within seconds.
“I’m an environmental scientist, so the science aspect intrigued me, and then when I made it, everyone kinda’ raved about it,” VanTassel said.
Rathert and Brian Whitted assisted the children in putting their buckets in the back of the trunk before they climbed into the car to begin their search for the perfect maple tree.
While searching for the tree, Jacob said that he doesn’t even like syrup because it makes him feel sick.
Suddenly a tree wrapped with yarn came into view from the family’s car window. Trees were wrapped to indicate they had been previously drilled, so participants may insert their taps. At the sight of the multicolored wool, Jacob called attention to the tree he wished to tap.
“Oh, there’s one, there’s one right there,” he said. “Right there, right there. Back up a little bit, back up, back up, back up.”
After struggling to find a parking spot in the bustling streets in Nashville, the family finally found a spot to leave their car. They went on foot to the maple tree.
After the sap began dripping into the bucket, the family was able to return for their bottle of maple syrup. Their collected sap will contribute to the 40 gallons of sap required to create one gallon of syrup.
