New England is known for it’s tree gold.
That amber liquid known as Maple Syrup.
Whether from NH or VT, the battle continues as the old timers and those not so old continue the argument about who’s is better. The argument itself along with the actual act of making it, is a time honored tradition. I truly believe it’s an ingredient!
A recipe that has been handed down generation to generation.
Best story I have heard, came from an ol’ friend. She was driving along a familiar back country road one day, came upon a vehicle with “out of state” license plates.
She saw two ladies on the side of the road, picking up leaves from the ground and placing them in a bucket. Feeling inquisitive, she stopped and asked what they were doing.
To which they replied, we are gathering maple leaves to take home and boil, so we can make home made maple syrup.
Oh how we chuckled about that one.
Sorry ladies, that is not how it’s done.
For those of you who don’t know. Maple syrup comes from “the sap” of maples trees.
A spigot is pounded into the tree, the sap drips into a bucket that is hung on the spigot.
(note: It doesn’t hurt the trees!)
These days, as you can see from these pics, the time consuming driving around from tree to tree emptying of each bucket has been replaced by a more modern way.
Don’t let this simple looking process fool you. It is not a job for wimps!
Muscles, a unwavering amount patience, warm days, cold nights mixed with friends and family helping is just the start.
Basically, the process is to heat the sap to a boil, to decrease the water content.
When done accurately, it produces rich golden sweet tongue pleasing syrup.
This is done is in what we call a sugar house.
It takes 40 parts maple sap to make 1 part maple syrup (10 gallons sap to make 1 quart syrup). Because of the large quantity of steam generated by boiling sap, it is not recommended to boil indoors.
Tap my trees- a link on the process
Kind Regards
and happy pancakes – K
Solitude
Craft
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