Snavely Maple Fest is back after four years

REPUBLIC — Maple Fest returns 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday at Snavely's Sugar Shack after a four-year hiatus. In addition to breakfast, the day includes the option of a hay/straw ride to the sugar shack to see how maple syrup is made. Chris Snavely said he and his brothers Brian and Rodney are assisting their parents, Paul and Evelyn, and their uncle, Steve Snavely, with putting together the festivities this year. Chris said there's a heated building near the road at 9409 E. TR 138, Republic, where breakfast is served. Food choices include pancakes with locally-made syrup and locally-raised sausage, coffee, orange juice and water. In addition, there will be soft-serve ice cream with maple syrup, maple popcorn and cotton candy. Before or after breakfast, visitors can ride back to the sugar shack in the woods in an enclosed trailer to see the syrup-making process, which uses a reverse osmosis machine as well as a traditional evaporator. Both processes are much more modern than the methods used 159 years ago when the sugar shack was founded in 1864. Chris said he and his brothers are the sixth generation of Snavelys making maple syrup, and the tours are to be conducted this year by their children, the seventh generation. He said there's an "up and coming" eighth generation who are small children. Chris said making syrup is a lot of labor. The family taps 2,300 trees and collects sap mainly bucket by bucket. "But we also have friends and neighbors that bring sap in," he said. That raises the total to around 7,000 tapped trees. "We're looking to make 1,700 gallons of syrup this year," he said. Chris said the syrup season started about two weeks early this year on Feb. 5, and so far 1,400 gallons are finished. It takes 40-45 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup, depending on sugar content. "That's about 75,000 gallons of sap this year," he said. "We do collect by bucket primarily." In a few areas, they use tubing that collects sap into tanks, but the tanks are emptied by hand. All of that collecting is done by about 20 people. "It's a lot of labor to collect it all," he said. The fruits of their labor will be for sale in various-sized bottles. Cost for the breakfast is $12 for adults and $7 for children ages 6-12. Kids 5 and younger are free. If the weather is questionable, Chris suggested checking the Snavely's Sugar Shack page on Facebook.