4 eggs
¾ cup maple syrup
¼ teaspoon vanilla
3 cups milk
pinch of salt
Beat eggs slightly, then beat in milk, maple syrup, salt, and vanilla. Pour into 8 individual custard cups: set cups in a pan of hot water, and bake in 350° oven for about 45 minutes. Test by inserting knife blade in center, if it comes out clean, the custard is done. Cool and serve with maple syrup poured over the custard.
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup melted butter or margarine
½ cup sifted flour
½ cup chopped nuts
¼ teaspoon salt
pinch of baking soda
pinch of baking powder
Combine syrup and melted butter. Sift flour with salt, soda, and baking powder. Blend with the first mixture, then add nuts. Drop by teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart. Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven, cool for 30 seconds, and remove from sheet. Makes 24 cookies. These sweet, crunchy cookies must be kept tightly covered to retain crispness.
4 large apples
1/3 cup plain nonfat yogurt
¼ cup raisins
1 teaspoon maple syrup
¼ cup rolled oats
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts
Wash and core the apples, taking care not to cut through the bottoms. In a small mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, raisins, and maple syrup. Fill the apple centers with the yogurt mixture. In another small bowl, combine the rolled oats, cinnamon, and chopped walnuts. Sprinkle the oat mixture on top of the apples. Place them in a baking dish, and pour a couple of inches of water into the dish, surrounding the apples. Bake, uncovered, until the apples are very tender, about 1 hour. Cool slightly before serving.
2 cups navy beans or great northern beans
½ cup pound pork, sliced and cut into cubes
1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
Dash of molasses
½ cup pure maple syrup
Soak beans overnight (covered with water). Then pre-cook in open kettle, using ¼ teaspoon baking soda (removes gas out of beans). Cook and watch closely for ½ hour. Drain. Put beans in casserole dish, mix in remaining ingredients, cover and bake at 375° for 1-1/2 hours.
March is coming. Anticipation for the new maple syrup season is building. We have had a “proper” winter again: snowy and cold December through Feburary. In December alone we had about 42″ of snow. And through the end of February the total is 78″. 5″ to 10″ of snow is actually forecast for WI today and tomorrow.
The buckets are washed. We are planning on making a supply run this week. We need bottles. And a part for our filter press. Hopefully next week we will start tapping. We never know what the weather will bring but we are always hopeful.
You can follow along here as we will post updates of our daily activities.
Making maple syrup is a pleasant chore. Its hard work in the woods: staying up late boiling; carrying pails full of sap; adapting to changing weather (cold and snowy in early March; wet and muddy late March and early April.) Yet every Spring the maplely sweet aroma from the boiling sap in the evaporator seduces you again and you know its the right thing to be doing. Following are narratives of our past seasons chronicling our daily activities during the maple season.
MapleAcres is located in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.
MapleAcres
3406 Maplewood Rd
Two Rivers, WI 54241
USA
E-mail: Info@MapleAcres.com
Site Copyright 2000-2017 Karl W. Zander. All Rights Reserved.
Maple Syrup has been produced at MapleAcres in Two Rivers, WI since 1918. 2015 marks the 98th year Maple Syrup is made at MapleAcres. Maple Syrup is made in the spring of the year. The season starts around the end of February or early March and lasts to early April depending on weather. Maple trees need a unique weather pattern of alternating warm sunny days and freezing nights that happen as winter gives way to spring.
Click here to read about the 2014 season. You can read about past season by clicking on the section “In the Sugarbush.”
The Sugar Master at MapleAcres
Sappin’ Time
By Esther S. Zander
“Come boys, get the auger and spouts,”
Hear their happy-go-lucky shouts;
Into the woods, away they go
Over the ice and melting snow.
Washed are the buckets, free from grime
“Hurry, boys, it is tappin’ time.
The sun is high; tonight ’twill freeze,
Hang those buckets on the trees.”
At sappin’ time it is such fun
Up and down hillsides on the run
From tree to tree like squirrels they leap
Carrying pails; some on the jeep.
Hear that tinkling drip, drip, drip,
Ah, for a cool, refreshing sip,
Crystal clear it runs from a tap,
That spring-time tonic, maple sap.
“The pails are full,” we hear them say
At the end of the busy day;
With gathering tank on the rack
The tractor brings a full one back.
From tank to tank the clear sap flows
To evaporators it goes;
It bubbles, boils, makes clouds of steam,
Fills the cabin from floor to beam.
A roaring fire, temperature high,
Stacks of wood in the shed near by,
Gathered many months before
To have it handy at the door.
Seems strange that maple trees should know
Just when it’s time for sap to flow.
And when a storm is passing by
They feel the east wind in the sky.
They know when it will rain or snow,
And when the cold northeast winds blow;
No sap flows then, for maple trees
Need balmy weather — warmer breeze.
The vendor’s cry is not our lot,
The amber fluid’s been canned hot
In clear glass jars where all can see
How tempting maple syrup can be.
On ice cream, waffles, pancakes, too,
No other syrup quite will do
For breakfast, dinner, and at night
To pep a waning appetite.
“Come, boys,” with busy weeks ahead,
Long, pleasant hours, few spent in bed.
With sunny days, nights freezing clime,
We know its maple sappin’ time
Final counts:
3070 gallons of sap
293 quarts of finished syrup
73 gallons and 1 quart of finished syrup
42 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of finished syrup (42:1)
27 days to the season from first tapping to buckets off
We had just about ideal conditions for the 2008 season. The Fall was not too dry so the trees could store the starch the need to make sap. The Winter was cold and snowy. We had a snow cover of 15” – 20” in the woods. Even in early March it was still getting down to 0 at night. As March progressed we got the alternating freezing nights and warm sunny days that stimulate sap flow. We fought ice only once on Easter Sunday when the trees started to run well. The week of March 23rd was busy with the heaviest sap runs. That 660 gallons of sap on March 26 ranks as one of the largest we ever collected at once. We had no snow or rain storms. We didn’t even have much mud as the snow melted slowly enough that the thawing ground could absorb it. About three times we were out cooking until 1:30 am or so, but that’s part of the romance of making maple syrup…”Long pleasant hours, few spent in bed.”
All in all we are thankful for the crop and pleased with the results.
The woods enters its prettiest time of year during the next few weeks as the wild flowers come out. May Flowers. Trilliums. Dog Tooth Violet. Jack-in-the-Pulpit. And many others all provide a colorful reminder of nature’s beauty.
We hope over the next year to rebuild our steam roof. We want to put hinges on the panels so we don’t have to climb onto the roof each year to open and close it. Climbing on the roof is probably the most dangerous part of the season. And we have to fill the wood shed again. Its quite bare.
In October is the annual maple syrup producers meeting. This year it will be in Springfield, MA.
And we plan to be back here in late February or early March of 2009 for season 91.
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