The Glory of March - Sap!

Grandsons, acres of maple trees . . . and plastic tubing!

We spent the Ides of March off Layton because the sap is running, and we wanted to follow the flow! Evidently, the sap runs when the nights are cold, and the days are warm. No reason to beware of this Ides as the maple trees are feeling the warmth, and so are we.

I took my grandsons to a maple sugar farm. The experience was much less harrowing than the snow shoe escapade at the state park. In fact, today's adventure involved food . . . a perk that always makes a grandma-adventure fun.

We trekked to Burke's Maple Farm on Crystal Lake Road in Carbondale for their open house weekend. Mr. Burke and his mother walked us through the maple syrup-making process.

I envisioned a maple sugar farm with little wooden spigots drilled in the sides of  maples and a bucket dangling below each spigot. But we had stepped out of that Norman Rockwell painting and into the twenty-first century. This farm boasted all the equipment of a state-of-the-art maple sugaring powerhouse. In fact, the farm looked almost like a scene from a sci-fi thriller!

Thousands of maples, for football field spaces in every direction, linked to each other with miles and miles of plastic tubing . . . plastic tubing up the mountainside, plastic tubing down the hill, plastic tubing across the meadows, plastic tubing weaving serpentine through the forest as far as the eye could see, forming a maze of interconnected, living, breathing, sugar-producing trees.

I wondered if the deer stumble through this plastic labyrinth, entwining their antlers in plastic tubing, or if the black bears pull the tubing apart and sit beneath maples, sucking the sweet nectar until they lapse into a sugar coma.

But it is vacuum cylinders that suction the sap through the tubing, and the sap runs, throbbing and shushing across the woodlands, like the circulatory system of a giant towards the heart of the farm, the boiler. The tubing rises above our heads, over the driveway, and dumps into the gleaming, stainless steel collector . . . the life blood of nature, bringing healthy sweetness to greenhorns like me.

Amazing.

A full time contractor, Mr. Burke runs the maple sugaring operation as a hobby . . . granted, an expansive one that must involve spending a lot of time with plastic tubing and Mrs. Burke's homemade maple muffins, maple cookies, and maple candy. She appears to be a chef extraordinaire with all things maple.

There were samples, of course, so the boys headed for the muffins and cookies. The maple glazed walnuts scored with all of us. We bought two packages, finishing most of them off on the ride home. Of course, we bought a king's ransom of syrup for pancakes, too. The plan is to make the walnuts this week with our fresh syrup so the glory of March will last a bit longer.

We already have a grandma adventure planned for the Ides of March in 2015. It will have something to do with plastic tubing and maple glazed walnuts.

Visit Burke's Maple Farm on line: http://www.burkesmaplefarm.com/index.html

Maple Glazed Walnuts

Yield: 

2 cups of glazed nuts

Ingredients: 

2 cups walnut halves and pieces
1 tablespoon butter
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup pure maple syrup

Instructions: 

1. Measure ingredients (or have nearby) before starting so they are ready when needed.

2. In a heavy or non-stick skillet (I used stainless steel) over medium-high heat, melt butter. When butter is melted, quickly stir in the salt and cinnamon. Stir in maple syrup and then stir in the nuts.

3. Contiinue stirring over medium-high heat as the nuts are getting hot and the syrup is bubbly. Stir constantly as the syrup bubbles and then begins to thicken around the walnuts.

4. The nuts are done when the syrup is a thick glaze on the nuts. Remove pan from heat and lay nuts on a plate (not plastic) to cool.