Stratford hosts annual pancake breakfast

Strat­ford Eco­log­i­cal Cen­ter Oper­a­tions Man­ager Chris Byerly and Founder Louise Warner mix up whole wheat pan­cakes for the 11th annual pan­cake break­fast.
GAZETTE | MELISSA MACKEY

Jason Fisher’s mouth was singing Sat­ur­day morn­ing after tast­ing his pan­cakes and maple syrup.

Fisher, a Colum­bus res­i­dent, wasn’t eat­ing just any type of pan­cakes, but the all-organic, fresh ones offered at Strat­ford Eco­log­i­cal Center’s Maple Days Pan­cake Break­fast in its 11th year.

Fisher’s wife, Kristin Fisher, and his son, Jacob Fisher, 2, came along for the all-you-can eat break­fast com­plete with whole-wheat pan­cakes, wood-fired maple syrup and sausage.

“I’ve never had fresh syrup like this,” Kristin Fisher said. “It’s great.”

Jason Fisher had to agree.

“It makes your mouth sing,” he said.

Thou­sands of pan­cakes are poured and flipped Sat­ur­day morn­ing start­ing in the early hours of the morn­ing until around noon, said Louise Warner, the center’s founder. The breakfast’s pro­ceeds all go back into the non­profit organic farm that hosts both child and adult programming.

Break­fast par­tic­i­pants could take a hike to the Sugar Shack where the syrup is made. The syrup sea­son has been a bit slow so far, said Chris Byerly, the center’s oper­a­tions manager.

“It hasn’t been a poor sea­son, but we’ve pro­duced 18 gal­lons of syrup,” Byerly said. “At this point, we’ve gen­er­ally had a lit­tle more than that. It’s all weather-dependent, and it’s been a lit­tle on the warm side. We’re hop­ing for a few more days of sap flow.”

Typ­i­cally, a good sap day is when the tem­per­a­tures are freez­ing overnight and about 40 degrees Fahren­heit dur­ing the day. The cen­ter col­lects about 200 to 300 gal­lons of sap a day, and it takes about 40 gal­lons of sap to make one gal­lon of syrup, Byerly said.

The cen­ter taps 155 trees each year and pro­duces about 20 to 30 gal­lons of fin­ished syrup each sea­son, Byerly said.

The day also offered a host of activ­i­ties for those com­ing out for the hearty break­fast, includ­ing a visit to see the just born baby lambs in the barn and black­smith and spin­ning wool demonstrations.

The event put on each year since 2000 takes more than 100 vol­un­teers, said Jane Walsh, vol­un­teer coor­di­na­tor. The cen­ter is always look­ing for vol­un­teers. Those inter­ested can call 740–363-2548.

Posted by Melissa Mackey on Mar 13 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.