Maple Sugaring Sunday, held on March 24th this year, brought out large crowds of Mainers touring the sugarhouses and sampling the best maple syrup in the country. While other parts of the world are enjoying crocuses and daffodils, we are definitely into sap! The above photo shows the sap line at Ducktrap Valley Maple Farm in Belmont, Maine.
The owner of Ducktrap Valley told us how he had spent all winter building his sugarhouse in anticipation of tapping 75 trees which he hopes to increase to 175 someday. I hope he realizes his dream...it takes 50 gallons of sap to produce a gallon of maple syrup. Liquid gold!
Our next stop was Bradstreet Maple Farm, a much larger operation, in Searsmont, Maine. It was a long squishy walk through slippery mud past pretty farmhouses to the sugarhouse.
At last we reached the sugarhouse! Inside the sap was boiling and young folks were serving waffles with vanilla ice cream and maple syrup to all the visitors.
The air was thick with steamy fragrance.
We are told the sap inexplicably stopped running for about 10 days and started to flow again just in time for Maple Sugaring Sunday. Perhaps it was due to the twelve inches of snow and unseasonable weather we experienced the week before.
This batch of sap is almost ready as it is brought to a final boil.
...and at last!
...and my favorite way to enjoy this delectable treat? I will wait until July when I can sprinkle fresh wild Maine blueberries on vanilla ice cream with Maine maple syrup!
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And make it Grade B please!
ReplyDeletehome before dark ~ Here is a link from Vermont!
Deletehttp://www.piecesofvermont.com/gradeb-vs-gradea.html
I HAVE to try homemade maple syrup someday :)
ReplyDeleteOptimistic Existentialist ~ You have never had maple syrup? Oh, you poor thing!
DeleteWow beautiful shots! Almost made me want to try it!! But not quite! I'm one of the few people that doesn't like maple syrup! Love the adventure of these photo s though! Think spring! And mud is looking good to us!!
ReplyDeleteRain :)
Rain ~ Thank you very much! On the bright side, everything that goes great with maple syrup is fattening. Fortunately, Maine offers many other goodies from blueberries to fiddleheads and it's almost the season for those!
DeleteI am thinking spring, truly I am, but there is still a big patch of snow in the backyard :-(