After a few ridiculous winters of days as much as thirty degrees above normal giving even New Englanders and Ontarians a chance to bask in the January sun, our delayed winter of 2013 has given our lovely Sugar Maple (Acer Saccharum) trees a chance to once again shine and bring for their wonderful sap, and more importantly, sugar derived from said sap. A wonderful blog I follow, Growing With Plants, has devoted their latest post to this wonderful affair of sticky tree blood:
http://www.growingwithplants.com/2013/03/vermont-maple-sugarmakers-rejoice.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FKxxH+%28Growing+with+Plants%29
Now, to be fair, this is only mere Vermont maple syrup, which is nothing compared to Ontario or even Quebec maple syrup. I will not even try to comment on people in Illinois or Indiana claiming they can do it...
Just kidding. Or am I?
Anyway, thanks to Growing With Plants, probably one of the most entertaining and informative gardening blogs out there, for spreading the maple gospel.
Wow, Thanks Brent. Of course, I live in Massachusetts and our syrup is the best, we all know it! ( have you heard of Birch syrup from MInnesota? I am so curious to try it). Thanks so much for the link!).
ReplyDeleteMatt
Birch syrup (and beer) has sort of a wintergreen aftertaste to it, especially at first. Over time you can start to appreciate the sap quality a bit more, and it tastes what is best described as "edible tree". Apparently the best of it comes from Black Birch (Betula Lenta) which are abundant in the Appalachians but nearly absent from the Great Lakes region. Definitely something to look into, especially considering as how Minnesotans probably have to use another variety.
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