M is for maple syrup, sweet, sticky, and made right here in upstate NY.The trees are tapped in late February and the sap is collected through most of March. As long as the days are above freezing and the nights below, the sap is good for syrup. Once the trees bud, the sap turns bitter and the sugaring season comes to and end.
Real maple syrup is much preferred over the artificial stuff sold on grocery store shelves. It is wonderful on pancakes, scrumptious on oatmeal, and fabulous drizzled over a bowl of vanilla ice cream.
We missed a field trip to the Sugar Shack this year (These are from a few years back...), but I did manage to secure a gallon of the sweet stuff for future snacks and breakfasts. Many thanks to my friend, Sheri, whose father spends the month of March hanging out by the fire and pouring syrup into bottles.Sorry, no pancake pictures today.
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This must have been an awful sap-collecting season (at least in the North East) as we still have snow. Neat post.
ReplyDeleteA gallon of syrup! That sounds enough for an army!
ReplyDeleteI worry that, because of climate change, NY and VT will lose the ability to have real maple syrup, which, btw, I had just yesterday!
ReplyDeleteROG, ABC Wednesday team
I love maple syrup!I use it in something almost every day.
ReplyDeleteJane x
There's very few things as good as real, authentic maple syrup! The artificial stuff just doesn't hold a candle to the real stuff.
ReplyDeleteNice pick for letter M!
ReplyDeleteMy Letter M, hope you can come and see. Have a nice day!
Beautiful M entry!
ReplyDeleteWill you lease come and see my Letter M? Thank you!
Oh I would love to taste some of that "real" stuff...mmmm.
ReplyDeleteWanda, come to my house for pancakes and I will put the "real" stuff on them. :)
ReplyDeleteOh you have me drooling for real maple syrup. We lived in Ottawa for 3 years and brought back buckets (well tins!) of the real Quebec stuff.
ReplyDeleteLeslie
abcw team