Another use for maple . . . .

[Steven DeMars]

I found this page while lurking in the Hobart welding forum . . . . Thought with all the love for "maple" some of you guys might find this interesting.



http://www.pleasantvalleymaples.net/



I have no connection to these guys, their page just looked so "American" I could not pass up sharing it . . . . . . .

[Dewey Torres]

40 gallons of sap to equal 1 gallon of syrup.!?!?

I didn't know that!

Love it on Pancakes and Waffles though!

Dewey

[Dave Anderson NH]

When I want my syrup I just go across town to Brian Folsum's sugar house. I can watch the sap being boiled and nothing beats locally produced product. The sugar house is open on weekends for about a month or whatever the particular year's sugaring season allows.

I haven't had the store bought "maple syrup" for over 20 years. Who would even want the artifically flavored stuff that is 98% sugar water.

[Clara Koss]

I found this page while lurking in the Hobart welding forum . . . . Thought with all the love for "maple" some of you guys might find this interesting.



http://www.pleasantvalleymaples.net/



I have no connection to these guys, their page just looked so "American" I could not pass up sharing it . . . . . . .

funny, glad you shared that page...american for sure...

[Rob Russell]

They're right when they say they do it the "old-fashioned" way. Check out all the split firewood. It takes cords of wood to boil all that sap down.

[Greg Cole]

An uncle of mine makes syrup in Central Vermont. I remember riding on a tractor with him collecting sap from buckets to boil on a wood fired evaporator...... nothing good about that work in the "old days" in snow up to your knees getting soaked from sap and wet snow! Tapping the trees is a mountainous effort too, up to 20,000 taps!
Now he has plastic tubing from tree to tree that runs into a main line to a tank on the side of the road with a sucker pump to help the flow... the sap goes through a reverse osmosis machine to pull out some water (sap averages 4-6% sugar) and then evaporator is a oil fired double burner set up.
On a good year, he'll can about 3,000 gallons of syrup in a one man operation.
He even sells the water from the reverse opsmosis machine to someone who bottles it and markets it as "Maple Water"...... no comment on those who purchase "Maple Water".
Also MLB players are using more and more maple bats and going away from the traditional ash, which is why you see many more "exploding" bats these days (the thinner handles don't help any combined with the wood species change).
Leave it to a Vermonter to talk about syrup for a couple paragrahs eh?

Greg

[Craig Summers]

I haven't had the store bought "maple syrup" for over 20 years. Who would even want the artifically flavored stuff that is 98% sugar water.

Actually only "log cabin" brand has @ 2% maple in it.

All the others (unless a store brand bottled by Log Cabin) have 0% maple in them. Its corn syrup with color/flavor. If in doubt, check the label, maple syrup doesnt even make it to the ingredient list.

Down here in VA i buy my my maple syrup from Costco in the big jug . Takes a while to empty that one.

[Chris Padilla]

I guess I grew up on Mrs. Butterworth's ARTIFICIALLY flavored maple syprup...or was it Log Cabin...or some other brand?? Now we just smear bananas and strawberries or whatever fruit is available on our pancakes, waffles, and french toast...but I still like to drizzle some 99-cent "maple" syrup on it, too!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Some stores will carry "100 % maple" syrup. It comes in very small bottles and is very expensive compared to the other brands. I bought a bottle once as a special gift to my wife who lamented she liked it and had not had any since she was a child. She enjoyed it and ordered me not to make that kind of expenditure for her again.

[David G Baker]

Maple syrup is not cheap in Michigan but it is not extremely expensive if purchased from some place other than an exclusive gift shop. We get it from the Amish at a reasonable price. We don't use too much of it but waffles and pancakes taste much better using hot maple syrup with melted butter in it, maybe three times a year is enough to get our fix.
The harvest sure has changed since I was a kid. I miss the maple forests with buckets hanging from the trees and the smell of the burning wood used to cook the syrup down. Ah the good old days.

[Burt Alcantara]

We've been using maple syrup as a replacement for sugar more and more. Yes, it is very expensive but it tastes better and is less hostile to the body.

Unfortunately, not an easy thing to find here in the summer.

Burt

[Bill Cunningham]

Years ago, the deer hunt camp I was part of, used to have to travel through a sugar bush to get the camp.. For years, I had a standing order for the 'last' gallon out of the evaporator, and would pick it up when I went deer hunting.. This is the syrup that was the dark color of old motor oil, the flavor was strong, and sweet, and made that light 100% maple stuff you get in the stores look like water! My next door neighbor's family has a sugar bush, and different branches of the family reserve a block of days every year, and make their own syrup as a family project.. She gives me a quart of the dark stuff every year, and it's fantastic..

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I'd have to put it in the category of ----- . (I cant even remember what it was now). But the story goes like this.... My ex-officemate asked me, "Have you ever had homemade ------? You don't know what you're missing." And I still haven't, so I still don't. That means the things that everyone else says run a poor second taste just fine to me. Think of all the exotic fruits, dishes etc that must be out there in the world that would hit your taste buds in just the right place - that you'd kill for to just have another taste of -, that you'll never find out about. I have read that no one in the U.S. will ever taste a really good banana because it's impossible to pick and transport them when they should be picked.

That's OK, because there are things I have had that fill the bill for my Texas taste buds on my "delicacy" list.

How'd I get off into this "food philosophy" thing??

[David G Baker]

Richard,
Food philosophy is sometimes stimulated by the crop that once grew in fence rows and on occasion was smoked by the local farm boys.

[Walt Caza]

Hi All,
I am glad you enjoy your maple.
In Canada, we love it so much, we put the Maple leaf on our flag.
My wife and I enjoy pure maple syrup on pancakes, french toast, etc...

The odd time if I am away from home and am offered fake syrup, which I consider 'maple water', I sure notice the difference.
That brown water should apologize to the real thing.
Even Aunt Jemima with 15% real maple syrup tastes washed out to me. Maybe I have been 'spoiled'!

I enjoy pure maple, purchased in small glass bottles, with the name of the farm on them, and no other ingredients at all.
Some may recall the Seinfeld pancake reference...
Jerry was caught sneaking in his own bottle of good syrup and was reprimanded and threatened with:
'we don't allow outside jams, syrups or condiments...and if I catch you with that in here again, I'm gonna confiscate it'.

I think Jerry knows the difference too!
take it easy,
Walt