Monday, March 26, 2001
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
BOARDMAN -- Thick lines of cars whizzed along U.S. Route 224, many passing the main entrance to Boardman Park in the blink of an eye.
The pace was deliberately slower inside the park Sunday, and thick described only the maple syrup being served with pancakes.
The township park's annual Maple Syrup Festival is like a speed bump in the road of 21st-century high-tech life.
It's where people park their sporty Hondas to take a leisurely hayride on the park's wooded trails.
It's one place along the busy retail corridor of mass-produced merchandise where craftspeople demonstrate and sell the fruits of their painstaking labors.
Sap to syrup: It's where quality matters more than quantity. That was evident in Chet Long Pavilion, where the sap-to-syrup process was taking place.
Park retiree Richard Sambles of Boardman guessed it had taken about 35 gallons of sap and three hours of boiling to make less than a gallon of syrup, which he had poured into two clear glass jars.
Sambles "wasn't serious about it," he said; after all, this was a demonstration. A syrup-making business would use larger vats and a hotter fire -- perhaps natural gas instead of wood, he said. Under those conditions, the yield might be a gallon per hour.
Sambles is serious about his love for Boardman Park. Working outdoors here was a welcome change of pace after 15 years at the former Youngstown Sheet & amp; Tube.
"In fact, they didn't have to pay me. I would have paid them," he said of the park.
Iron crafter: Blacksmith Robert Kurz of Canfield set up his display a stone's throw away from Chet Long Pavilion. His enthusiastic 9-year-old son, Grant Robert Kurz, was peddling his father's wares.
Grant sensed that a reporter wasn't shopping for horseshoes or campfire equipment, so he improvised with a two-foot-long iron rod. "You could use it as a cane," he said, feigning a limp as he walked around the bed of the family pickup truck while his sister Lindsay, 14, looked on.
Robert Kurz makes plenty more -- stair railings, hinges, candle holders and one-of-a-kind fireplace tools, all hand-forged. "It's not stuff you can buy at Sears," he said.
Kurz works for Garland Welding and Forge in Youngstown. His side work as a blacksmith required little of his time over the winter, but he expects business to pick up as temperatures rise.
Kurz carries a photograph album of past projects, including a pheasant that he forged for the outer gate of the Globe Theater in London. That photo album represents thousands of hours of labor. It takes about two days to create a short railing, "depending on how intricate you want it to be," he said.
"That's the hardest part -- having your time paid for," he added.
Busy place: There was genuine hustle and bustle inside Boardman Community Center, home of Rotary Club of Boardman's annual Maple Syrup & amp; Pancake Breakfast.
Patrons had it easy. They bought tickets at the door and were seated at round tables. Breakfasts were served restaurant-style, with Rotarians acting as waiters and waitresses.
"It's faster than McDonald's," bragged Frank Weldele, who with Karen DelSignore is co-chairman of the breakfast.
Some club members arrived before 6 a.m. to begin frying the sausage and mixing pancake batter. Weldele was part of a small army that was cleaning up as the meal ended.
About 1,100 breakfasts were served over the weekend. This is the club's second-largest fund-raiser of the year; Oktoberfest is tops, Weldele said.
Displays: The center also housed displays by Boardman Historical Society, Mahoning Valley Watercolor Society and Western Reserve Woodcarvers Club. Civil War enthusiasts set up camp outside.