2023 Maple Festival another roaring success
The Taylor County Lions and Lioness Clubs hosted the 2023 Maple Festival on Saturday in Medford.
The annual celebration of all things maple related is a joint activity of Lions and Lioness Clubs across the entire county. In past years, the event was held at the Taylor County Fairgrounds but was moved to the Simek Center after years of battling poor weather.
The move proved to be a good one as Saturday’s cold and wet weather made an indoor event highly attractive. The day started with a pancake breakfast served by Lions members, several hundred people attended the breakfast and enjoyed the fresh maple syrup provided by area sugar shacks.
The popular craft show expanded this year with more space for vendors to show their maple-themed products and additional vendor spaces. Youth activities included bike raffles and a large bouncehouse in one area of the arena.
Judging of maple syrup took place with 53 entries. A panel of three judges, assisted by four helpers, rated the syrups on such factors as flavor, consistency and clarity. Organizers praised the high level of quality of all the syrups submitted. There was a combination of those producing solely for home use and those who produce syrup to sell commercially. A total of 21 blue ribbons were awarded, 20 red ribbons and 10 white ribbons. Two entries were disqualified.
The judging was watched by a large audience with entries in by 10 a.m. and judging completed by 12:30 p.m. The judging saw entries submitted not only from local producers but from producers as far away as Nebraska and New York.
It was noted that quality of the syrup has increased each year of the competition. A key part of the competition is to educate producers and those looking to get into maple syrup production about ways to continually improve. For example in identifying the cause of an off flavor and what to do to prevent that in future batches.
In addition to the judging there were several raffles and contests held throughout the day. Maple Festival raffle winners were first place Sue Zenner wining $1,000; second place Harold Johnson winning $500, third place Jarrett Knuston winning $300, fourth place Marty Stephan winning $100 and fifth place Michelle Kurth winning $100.
The Taylor County Lions Red Wagon competition returned this year with area schools and youth groups invited to prepare wagon-based floats highlighting the many benefits and uses of Wisconsin’s state tree, the sugar maple. The students, led by the Lions mascot paraded the wagon floats through the displays at the Simek Center.
Taking first place and a $300 prize was the Stetsonville Elementary Pure Performance group, Casa Mara 4H took second place and $200, Holy Rosary PK4 took third place and $100 and there was threeway tie for fourth place with Girl Scouts, Holy Rosary Second Grade and Little Whispers 4H each earning $50. The cash awards were sponsored by Nicolet National Bank.
A new addition to this year’s Maple Festival was a pedal tractor race. Lee Waldhart of Stetsonville took the body of a Farmall Tractor and turned it into a pedal power device with up to eight people (four on each side) pedaling to provide power and a driver to steer it. A course was set up in the parking lot outside of the Simek Center. Five teams took part in racing to see which was the fastest.
The Taylor County Sherrif’s Department team took first place with a time of 1 minute, 16 seconds, narrowly beating the Medford Police Department team. Other competitors were Holy Rosary led by Father Patrick McConnell ahead of the Methodist Church team and the Bukets and Taps Maple team led by Carrie Johnson of Medford.
Organizers report they were pleased with the large turnout of this year’s event and have already begun planning for ways to continue to grow it for future years.
