Friday, March 07, 2008
It's Maple Sugaring Time
The ground is still covered in snow and ice. But things are starting to warm just a bit, and it's maple sugaring season - a great time in New England. Those with groves of sugar maples will be running taps, collecting the watery, slightly sweet sap in buckets through plastic lines running between the trees, as temperatures above freezing cause pressure that forces the liquid out. Producers bring the sap to sugar houses, with wood-fired kettles that will boil batches for 24 hours to develop the amber liquid you can easily grow to love.
Maple sugaring also means the opening of the seasonal restaurants attacked to some of the sugar houses: fluffy pancakes and round corn fritters, all soaked with maple syrup, and, at one, at least, even tiny cones of maple-flavored ice cream. The whole experience will last only six weeks. If you're anywhere near this part of the country, come by on a weekend, check one of the web sites for the locations of the restaurants, and get in early. Two hour waits are hardly unusual. In April, as people who have been coming for decades are leaving from their last breakfast of the season, you'll hear people say, "See you next year."
Maple sugaring also means the opening of the seasonal restaurants attacked to some of the sugar houses: fluffy pancakes and round corn fritters, all soaked with maple syrup, and, at one, at least, even tiny cones of maple-flavored ice cream. The whole experience will last only six weeks. If you're anywhere near this part of the country, come by on a weekend, check one of the web sites for the locations of the restaurants, and get in early. Two hour waits are hardly unusual. In April, as people who have been coming for decades are leaving from their last breakfast of the season, you'll hear people say, "See you next year."
Labels: maple syrup, restaurants, travel
