Maple Festival Time in Highland County, Virginia

Highland County Chamber of Commerce

It’s maple syrup time in these mountains I call home.  The sap is running and taps capture the maple fluid to boil it and boil it and boil it down into something that eventually becomes maple syrup.

People around here speak about maple syrup the way folks in France and Napa speak of wines:  Now 2009, that was a good year!  Just look at that color!  Smell this!

For two weekends, we engage in a maple frenzy of flavor – tea bags, popcorn, sausage, donuts, assorted nuts, not to mention pancakes and buckwheat cakes (my own favorite) – you name it, we put maple syrup on it and proclaim it good.

Maple Festival time (the 2nd & 3rd weekends of March) here in the Virginia Highlands is what community looks like to me.

Teachers and students at the school get their assignments early – there’s no asking for volunteers; the assumption is that if you’re at the school, you’ll be working to help raise monies for on-going school projects by putting in your time at Maple Festival, with school closed for students both Mondays after, as much, I suspect to give students and teachers a day of rest as to allow for in-service.

Folks near and far take time off from work to come and help.

People who don’t belong to the service clubs like the Ruritans and Lions sign up to work to help in the massive fundraising efforts of making thousands of pancakes and sausage patties for the hungry hordes.

And then there’s the insider stuff, which I love (who doesn’t love the feeling of being an insider?): calling in your donut order so you don’t have to stand in line for hours, or even better, getting the first donuts Friday night, hot and fresh, calling around to neighbors to see who wants you to pick up a dozen for them too . . . coming early to shop the yard sale because you’ll be working when it’s officially open for business . . . going in the back door to the kitchens to say hello to fellow workers and maybe sneak a bite of some tasty offering . . . getting to know your neighbors better while standing side-by-side up to your elbows in dishwater . . . sighing in collective satisfaction with feet up when it’s all over but the counting . . .

It’s kind of quiet in Highland County just now . . . the calm before the storm of tens of thousands of people descending on a place that usually boasts 2,400 inhabitants.

Come Sunday, I’ll be exhausted, but for now, I’m just looking forward to seeing my neighbors.