National Maple Syrup Festival

Set your sights for Indiana's Brown County the first weekend in March. That's the new location for the National Maple Syrup Festival.

From March 5 through 8, 2015, there'll be tree tapping, sap boiling and lots of foods and drinks using maple syrup as an ingredient in and around Brown County State Park.

The Dutch Oven Diva will cook, bake and have samples of her sweet and savory foods around a huge stone fireplace in Brown County State Park. The rangers there will lead interpretive hikes, teaching how to identify maple trees in winter and spring. Descendents of the Delaware and Shawnee native tribes will reenact how their ancestors made maple syrup on this land centuries ago, and, nearby, French Colonial reenactors will demonstrate how early white settlers made it differently.

The Story Inn will be home to the Sweet Victory Challenge, a culmination of national recipe contests for youth and adults, involving chefs, food writers and bloggers.

Downtown Nashville’s Pioneer Village will come alive with demonstrations of early pioneer sugaring methods. Nashville restaurants and retailers will focus on maple-related foods and wares, food and art artisans with candies, breads, chocolates and other foods and art from maple sap and maple trees will line the streets.

Authors who have written on the maple syrup craft will be featured guests at dinners with foods and beers from maple syrup.

Ever had a pancake flipped onto your plate from 20 yards? Chris Cakes travels the country making pancakes coupled with a show like none other, and the Brown County High School is hosting that show on the mornings of March 7 and 8.

Why Maple Syrup is So Expensive

Those of us who make maple syrup know this stuff, but for those of you who wonder what/when/why, check out this article in the Huffington Post.

Why Maple Syrup Is So Damn Expensive

The Bloom Is on for Maple Syrup

"Pancake lovers, take heart," writes Joshua A. Krisch in The New York Times. "In the coming weeks, maple farmers throughout Quebec, Vermont and elsewhere in the syrup belt will dust off their metal spiles for another harvest season, and some scientists are predicting that the sugary sap will flow even more freely than usual.

"That’s because this year, the region is likely to have what is known in botany as a mast year — a time every few years when perennial trees like sugar maples synchronize their seed cycles, and flower as one. Low-seed years usually lead to mass blooms, and may bode particularly well for the maple syrup industry."

Read the rest here.

A Corpse in Maple Syrup?

Kathy Reichs, known for her mystery series featuring a forensic anthropologist named Temperance Brennan, turns out to be knowledgeable about maple syrup production as well.

In her latest, "Bones Never Lie" (New York: Bantam Books, 2014), one of Dr. Brennan's cases involves a corpse preserved in a vat of maple syrup.

A discussion of the sugaring process (in this novel, it's in Vermont) includes both collection of sap and syrup production.

Maple Cider Cocktail

What better cocktail could there be for maple syrup aficionados than this one, courtesy of Bon Appétit magazine.

Northwood Cocktail:

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons gold rum
2 tablespoons brandy
1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup (preferably Grade B)
3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Ice cubes
2 thin apple slices

Combine first 5 ingredients in cocktail shaker; fill with ice. Cover and shake vigorously until cold. Strain into 2 coupe glasses. Cut slit in each apple slice and attach to rim of each glass.

Recipe by David Moo; Photograph by Craig Cutler

Maine Maple Sunday

Maine Maple Sunday is the perfect day to be driving in the Pine Tree State. At least a dozen sugaring sites are joining in the 30th annual celebration, set for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 23, 2014. (Check the website closer to the date for a more complete listing.)

Sponsored by the Maine Maple Producers Association, the day includes sugarhouse visits, sugar bush tours and demonstrations on making maple syrup. There'll be plenty of maple treats to sample and buy, including maple cotton candy, maple sausage, ice cream with maple syrup and more.

Here are some of places to visit:
Luce's Saphouse
Rockwall Maple Farm
Smith Brothers Maple
Little Pond Sugarhouse
Strawberry Hill Farms
Wilson Family Maple
Bacon Farm
Old Fort Western
Hill Top Farm
Mike's Maple Sugar House
Sugar Brook Maple Farm
Linwood Acres

Check out a video of a past Maple Sunday:

Maple Syrup Time in New York State

Wandering upstate New York next month, Road Trips Foodies? There are several chances to watch sugaring.

The Farmers' Museum, 5775 State Highway 80 (Lake Road), Cooperstown, New York (map), holds "Sugaring off Sundays" each Sunday in March.

The event March 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31 features historic and contemporary sugaring demonstrations, children's activities and more. A full pancake breakfast is served from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. with other activities scheduled 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Have a taste of “jack wax” — hot maple syrup poured over snow.

Cost for ages 13 and up is $9; ages 7–12, $5, 6 and under are free -- and this includes full breakfast. Reservations are not required.

Two Maple Weekends also are scheduled, in which producers from across the state welcome families to their farms to experience firsthand how real maple syrup and other related products are made.

Maple Weekends will be held March 16 and 17 plus March 23 and 24, 2013, at 123 locations throughout upstate New York (see the map).

(Photo courtesy of Maple Weekends)