As the leading producer of Maple Syrup in the United States, it is only natural that Vermont has an statewide annual celebration of all things maple. During Vermont Maple Open House Weekend, sugarhouses all over the state open their doors for demonstrations and free samples.
Yesterday we headed up to a sugar house about 30 minutes away and up on a hillside. It was small family operation, and they were showing maple candy demonstrations, so we thought it sounded good. The first year we were here we totally missed the open house weekend and last year wasn't a good year for production so even though I took the kids to a sugarhouse, syrup wasn't being produced, so this was our first time really seeing it.
It was really cool. The candy demo took place in the family home, and then we headed outside to their sugarhouse where we were treated to "sugar on snow," a whole cup of fresh syrup (most of which Jack drank), fresh maple candy, and samples of maple sugar and cream (my favorite). We also could see the sap running through the tubes into the sugarhouse and the owner gave us a sample taste of the sap.
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| Making sugar on snow |
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| Yum! |
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| Jack the syrup guzzler |
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| In the sugarhouse. Look at all that steam! |
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It was our first time tasting sugar on snow and it is so good! The syrup caramelizes on top of the snow and becomes candy-like. So delicious. We had so much maple that we all fell into a sugar-coma until we ate some real food at home after we got back. It was worth it though.
Some fun maple facts:
*It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.
*Maple sugar, cream, and candy is made simply by bring the syrup to different temperatures (and a few other steps). No other ingredients are used.
*The sap is clear and tastes mostly like water - but not quite.
*The sap is harvested in March when the days are warming up (if you can call 40* warm) and the nights are still cold. When the trees start to bud, production ends. (Last year we had a freakishly warm week, which caused the trees to bud early, putting a halt to syrup production.)
* A maple production farm is called a "sugarbush," the process is called "sugaring" and the building is called a "sugarhouse."
*For something to be labelled as "maple" in Vermont, it has to contain real maple syrup, not imitation.
6 comments:
I'm totally craving maple donuts now.
Made me want to read Little House in the Big Woods again! Jens loves that book - he has it on CD and the huge section on "Sugaring" is one of his favorites - he would so love to try sugar on snow, just like Mary and Laura - OK, so would I. So cool!
Our big maple party was on Saturday too. Unfortunately we didn't make it, but we plan to next year. Sounds so yummy!
Thanks for making all of the former Vermonters homesick! Ha, just kidding.
But we are running low on our maple supply. We brought a good amount with us, but we knew it wouldn't last that long with the way we love it! We had neighbors when I was younger who were from Vermont and now lived in Mississippi...they always ordered Vermont maple syrup in every winter. And now I understand why...we are going to be those people too!
We were unable to go this year so you'll have to give me the low-down on where to go next year.
Soooo jealous...we miss that so much. We are lucky that our grocery store carries Vermont maple syrup, and Rob's mom ships it to us from someone she knows that owns a maple farm. Otherwise we might die from a lack of yummy maple syrup.
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