Heritage Syrup Festival, 2010 | Down Home Traveler

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Every year on the second Sunday in November, you can head on over to Henderson, TX for the annual Heritage Syrup Festival. Being from Vermont, I grew up with Maple Syrup all around me for my entire life. Heck, I still need to have at least a half gallon in my fridge at all times. When I moved to Texas I had heard they had their own type of “syrup” down here but I wanted to know more. I had to know more. So I did what I do best, I went to explore.

I set out to the trip to East Texas last fall, for the 2010 Heritage Syrup Festival. I really didn’t know what to expect but I knew I had to check out as much as I could. The drive out to Henderson was great. First, for me to get out of the “city” is perfect. I can’t wait to get into that crisp fall air. Less is more folks! The even takes place in two areas of town, in Downtown Henderson and the Depot Museum Grounds. First up for me was Downtown.

Downtown you will find a ton of food. Pretty much any food imaginable, mexican, turkey legs, BBQ (we’re in Texas of course they have BBQ) and of course the fair food. I stuck with the corn dog and it was delicious. There was also craft tents, live bands (there’s more than one stage), square dancing, the Humane Society was there showing their available dogs (they were there to tempt me) and my favorite the antique car show. I love them! Thanks to my dad and my entire dad’s side of the family, I have grown to love the antique cars and down here I can’t seem to find a good show. BUT I sure did in Henderson. Here are a few of my favorites.

I LOVE this truck!

This is a 1927 Model T Ford. I know this because my dad drove me to Prom in one. Check out the crank in the front and the top comes down so its a convertible. Pretty awesome!

I took this one because frankly it looked expensive. I know its a Jaguar. It is expensive.

If I ever drive the Scenic California coast route – I want to do it in one of these.

Below is a painting off one of the buildings in downtown Henderson. Beautiful!

Now let’s not forget, I was here for a sugar festival. The sugar in Texas is derived from sugarcane. If you want to see what it looks like, see below. It’s much different than my maple syrup and there are different variations. There were a few samples but the best way to describe it is that it’s like corn syrup (the lighter versions) and molasses (the dark versions). Now, I’m a fan of molasses so I find nothing wrong with it but when I asked what it’s used for, I was mostly told for cooking (like pecan pies) and the lighter, the sweeter, you can put on pancakes.

Now, when you head over the the Depot, it’s where the fun really begins.

Keep in mind, all of the following showed demonstrations throughout the day.

It was really, really interesting.

First off, Sons of the Confederates. Yes, they are still kicking it down here.

I was going to remind him the Union won, but he had this long gun so I just walked away. It was pretty interesting though. They had their uniforms, cannons and muskets. I have a friend from home who probably would’ve loved this who does reenactments for the Union army.

Next up was the hunter / trader. They had set up an area where they showed what his living area would be like, with his skins, makeshift tent and how he took care of himself.

The following is how they make the sugarcane syrup.

First, you can see them feeding the sugarcane thru this machine.

The machine is actually being “operated” by the mule. The mule moves in slow circles, as he moves the grinder inside this machine is pulling thru the sugarcane and pretty much pulling all the “liquid” out of the branches. I’m not sure the technical terms for all of this so bare with me here. The liquid is then drained into the blue jug.

Once they have enough of this base liquid from the sugarcane they boil it down, much like maple syrup. I tried to ask someone how many gallons of the liquid needed to make a gallon of the syrup, they didn’t know. Nor when I mentioned Vermont, they didn’t really seem to care about maple syrup. Just for the record, 40 gallons of sap makes one gallon of the sweet stuff. Alrighty folks, moving along.

I found a few other folks who were doing demonstrations.

This man is a woodcarver and he made beautiful pieces. Here he was making a cane. He also had some children’s toys – I bought a whistle.

His neighbor was spinning wool into yarn. For some reason this always looked fun to me.

This man was making rope. I’ve never seen this so I found it pretty interesting. What he did was he took 3-5 pieces of twine / thin rope and locked them into place on each side of the machine. You can kind of see this below. On the farther end, the three ropes are brought together, On the closer end, they are farther apart on the piece with the handle. He then had this kid in the maroon hat, turn the handle which wove the three pieces of twine together to form a stronger piece of rope. Who knew.