It's syrup-making time at Dauset Trails; Skills of past demonstrated

Dauset Trails Nature Center invited the public to step back into bygone days at harvest time, on Saturday, Nov. 20. The staff and friends of Dauset Trails worked at making cane syrup and demonstrating blacksmith skills at the Acorn Forge in the Farm Animal area of the nature center, so that others might experience the sights, sounds, scents, and even tastes that were once a part of fall on farms in middle Georgia.

Rosebud, the mule, who is a full-time resident at Dauset Trails, stepped into a role familiar to mules in the past as she turned the cane press to squeeze the juice from 1,200 stalks of sugar cane purchased for the syrup-making demonstration. Rosebud walked in a circle as canes were loaded into the press and then removed after their sweet juice was extracted, sending the pleasing aroma into the air.