I think I have mentioned before just how much I love maple syrup. Really, I do not think I could ever live any where other than New England if not for this very reason! So, it is always with great joy that I welcome the start of maple sugaring season. Suddenly, one day, you start to see great billows of smoke coming out of all of the little sugar shacks that have sat cold and still for months and months. They come to life with big wood fires, people delivering buckets upon buckets of sap and the wonderful feeling that after the long winter spring is surely near. As a child my family made our own syrup, tapping our maples and boiling down the gallons of sap in a large outdoor caldron atop a blazing fire. It was such a wonderful time and I hope to do it again sometime. For now though we are lucky enough to have many neighbors who do it for us. We already bought our first gallon from our local policeman who makes it up the road and it goes on anything I can think to put it on...oats, pancakes, yogurt. We may just have to go get another gallon soon!
How cool! I just bought some real maple syrup. I haven't had the stuff since elementary. So I thought it's time to retire the artificial "stuff"-literally:)and go with the real deal!
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AH! that sounds like heaven. we have two books we read regularly that mention the ritual of tapping the maple trees, one is called Ox Cart Man and the other is a book about the seasons written and illustrated by the Provensons.
ReplyDeletei live in canada and maple syrup can be found everywhere. though, i wish i had a neighbour that made homemade maple syrup! mmm.... it's 9pm right now and all i can think about is pancakes with maple syrup.
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