Thanks to warming days and still-cool nights, the sugar maples are pumping in these here hills. All over Maine, craggy old trees are wearing silver necklaces of galvanized steel buckets, ready to catch whatever the trees will give them.
Every time I pour some Grade A Medium Amber all over my plain yogurt or blueberry pancakes or vanilla ice cream (try it, you won't look back), I realize that I could nearly live on this earthy-sweet nectar of the gods. And I'd better get tapping to make some of my own.
It's simple alchemy, according to the kind Cooperative Extension folks at the University of Maine: In late summer and fall, maple trees stop growing and store excess starches in their sapwood. It stays put as long as the temperature in the wood remains below about 40 degrees F. Whenever the wood warms up, the starches miraculously convert to sugars, which flow into the tree sap. It's finite, though. When temps reach about 45 degrees, the conversion stops—and so does the sugar.
Moved along by alternating spells of warm and cold, the sap pours from the tree into our waiting pails. Each tap hole, like this one, can yield anywhere from five to 15 gallons. But it takes about 10 gallons of sap to produce one quart of syrup. The time-consuming part of the operation is the boiling—the sap is mostly water, so it bubbles it until you're left with 66 to 67 percent sugar content at about 7 degrees F above the boiling point of water (here at the water's edge, that's 212 degrees F).
I found a great home sugaring primer that lists a slew of resources and supplies, not the least of which is Lehman's, which I love. I'm pining for a hobby-sized maple syrup evaporator, essentially a wood stove beneath a large, shallow pan. The Half Pint Evaporator should do just fine...
Until then, I've been plowing through fresh syrup with this wonderful recipe. These cookies are both yummy and healthy, so I eat them with abandon. Try them with vanilla ice cream ... drizzled with a bit more syrup, of course.
Maple oatmeal raisin cookies
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup Maine maple syrup
2 eggs
1 tsp. Maple extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins
Preheat oven to 375. Beat the butter and maple syrup together until well blended. Beat in eggs and maple extract. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt and sift together. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter maple mixture and mix well. Stir in raisins. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 12-14 minutes. Cool for two minutes before removing to wire racks. Store in a tightly covered container (if you can).
