Maine Maple Syrup season NGC, little Triumph content...

[radguzzi]

We just wrapped up the Maple Sugaring season here in the Midcoast area of Maine.  Pretty good year, the usual Light Amber, Amber and now Dark and Very Dark syrup. 

Some good too...!

The limited Triumph content is that I have a stack of parts to be installed on the '78 Bonneville and now that maples are budding, I can pull taps and get back it.

There is a tiny bit of Guzzi content is that there are three of them in the same garage.  :)

[Ncdan]

That’s cool Rad! Does your family make and sell the syrup? I’d love to have a bottle but the shipping would be very high.
Now you could bring me a jug down and we could spend a couple nights in the river house and ride the Smokey’s 👍

[spmoto]

Glad to hear you had such a bountiful season Rob and thanks for sharing. One of my favorite memories from my childhood in Maine was "suggarin'". We always had a lot more snow on the ground still back then and us kids would gather 'round as the hot syrup was ladled out onto the snow, crystalizing as it cooled and making for one of the best treats I can recall. I also remember the first time I was handed the reins of the team of oxen that hauled the sap gatherin' sled through the sugar bush. Was I ever proud!

[oldbike54]

 

 Dangit , now I want pancakes with peanut butter and maple syrup 

 Dusty

[spmoto]

Sorry, but you've opened a flood gate of memories here. When I was a little older I went out into the sugarbush with my Dad and Uncle to set taps. It was a stand of maples ranging from 24" to 36" dbh and spaced about 5-10 yard apart so the snow got really deep. We would snowshoe in and we each carried a snow shovel to dig down around each tree  in order to set the taps at a height we could still reach once the Spring melt set in and the sap began to flow.

[cliffrod]

Great to hear it was a good season.  In VT, sugaring season when I was a kid meant those little paper cups of hot syrup right off the pan at the sugar house.   My uncle always pulled sap with draft horses.  Lots more fun than a tractor.  Nothing like being in the woods when the sap is really running after you've emptied the buckets. The sap makes a lot of noise until the bottoms of the buckets are covered.

It also meant a big splurge in the house, using up last year's sugar that was NEVER wasted during the year (except by visiting city people that didn't get it....)   Old syrup was cooked down for sugar on snow and/or whipped with a fork to make a spread for toast (my grandmother's fresh bread) or dropped on wax paper to make real maple candy. 

Fresh raised yeast donuts, fried in a cast iron pan of oil, with plain warm syrup was (and still is, imho) best way to enjoy syrup.  Gramp would eat them so slow.  Even with all my culinary time & travels, I have no image in my mind of a more deliberate eating pleasure experience than Gramp eating fresh yeast doughnuts with warm syrup

Then it was back to the barn for chores.

[kingoffleece]

It's a big deal here in WNY-they call it maple weekend and it covers two weekends in a row.  A lot of the farms open up for tours and breakfasts and all kinds of things.
A great tradition.

[PJPR01]

On a recent trip, I found a new "flavor" of Maple syrup...aged in Bourbon barrels.  Might just bring some up to Cedar Vale for Breakfast with the Sultan.

https://localpalatemarketplace.com/products/pappy-van-winkle-bourbon-barrel-aged-pure-maple-syrup?variant=37640638726303&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjPaCBhDkARIsAISZN7RdKbTXUgpybJAo6VIe0DF1JcarWlDx4lrzOp6PUgW4e8Lf69uxRn0aAjOPEALw_wcB

[Rough Edge racing]

It's a big deal here in WNY-they call it maple weekend and it covers two weekends in a row.  A lot of the farms open up for tours and breakfasts and all kinds of things.
A great tradition.

Yeah I had property with many maple trees and got into making syrup. It was fun for awhile but messy....We have several bottles of local made syrup in the fridge for a long time because we rarely need it....w

[dguzzi]

  Very nice! I like it on grilled salmon, as my stepdad would say "yummy on the tummy".

  I've been ordering the "Sugarmakers Cut" from Runamok in Vermont.  Open to try others if its similar cost. Sure beats the local version!
  No offense Michigan tree tappers!