Maple Syrup Festival @ Leane and Michael's Sugarbush

We went on a day trip on Sunday with 4 other friends. The trip was to a Maple Syrup Festival at Leane and Michael's Sugarbush in Southern Indiana, about 3 hours drive away. We also visited other places along the way.

The itinerary for the day was as follows:

1. Breakfast at IHOP in Indy
2. Maple Syrup Festival
3. Shopping at Edinburgh Premium Outlets
4. Dinner at The Journey in Indy

First, we drove to IHOP @ Indy for breakfast. Photos taken at IHOP while waiting for our food to be served...

A group photo without YH since he is the cameraman... =p

Our breakfast at IHOP... Left: 2 Harvest Grain 'N Nut pancakes loaded with blueberries and topped with sliced bananas served with scrambled eggs. Right: 2 buttermilk pancakes served with potatoes, sausage and 2 eggs. I still like the buttermilk pancakes more... =p

After breakfast, we continued our drive to Leane and Michael's Sugarbush, about 1 and a half hours away.


Finally, we arrived at our destination! By the number of cars parked at the "carpark", there were quite a number of people there as well...

The photo on the left shows the Sugarhouse, place where the sap is processed into maple syrup. The photo on the right shows the firewood used to boil the sap.

This is the raw sap tank, it has a capacity of 1200 gallon and holds the sap after it is collected from the woods. An average of 55 gallons of sap is required to make 1 gallon of syrup. When the weather is warmer, the sap may be cloudy, which makes a slightly darker, stronger flavored syrup.

All the sap is passed through ultraviolet light to sterilize it and then they are pump into a Reverse Osmosis Feed Tank (photo on the right). This tank has a capacity of 1600 gallons and holds the sap while it is being pumped into the Reverse Osmosis Machine.

This is the Reverse Osmosis Machine which removes about 65% of the water from the sap before it is boiled. The sap is held in the Evaporator Feed Tank (photo on the right) after going through the Reverse Osmosis Machine. It has a capacity of 700 gallons and feeds the sap to the Evaporator to be boiled.

This the Evaporator Pre-heater, a hooded area of the Evaporator, which raises the temperature of the sap before it enters the Evaporator. Sap boils at the same temperature as water.

This is the Evaporator which removes 90% of the remaining water in the sap.

This is the Syrup Draw-out Point where finished maple syrup is drawn off at a temperature of 7 degrees above the boiling point of water. We can tell when the syrup is ready by 3 methods - visually, with a thermometer or with a hydrometer.

Then we had a tour to an area in the woods where they collected the sap from the trees. We learned that maple sap contains an average of 2% sugar. This is the tank which holds the sap collected from the trees using a series of lines and pipes.

Spiles are lightly tapped into the trees to collect the sap. Driving the spile too hard into the tree will split the bark and sap will leak out.

A photo with the Sugarhouse as background...

The Music Corner where you can sit and enjoy the music. That's the owner Michael playing the banjo.

Primitive way of sawing wood...

Then we had a go at sawing wood... It was really tough...

Then we went to get our piece of wood branded with a maple leaf mark...

An Amish family...

Our souvenirs from the Maple Syrup Festival - maple candy, a bottle of maple syrup and the piece of wood branded with maple leaf...

Website for Leane and Michael's Sugarbush: http://www.lmsugarbush.com/


After this we drove to Edinburgh Premium Outlets for some shopping. =)

We bought a pair of Crocs shoes each for USD9.99 a pair! Cheap! There were some that were even cheaper.

More purchases from Aeropostale... The tees were 2 for USD20 so we each bought 2 tees.. =p

Website for Edinburgh Premium Outlets: http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=51


After shopping, we made our way to Indy for buffet dinner at The Journey.

It was great! The variety of food was rather large and there were seafood (fish, prawns, crab, various shell fish) which are uncommon in our area... In addition there's sushi and sashimi. I am sure we will be back here again!! =p

Website for The Journey: http://www.thejourneyin.com/