New Hampshire - maple syrup?

DaveGunter effect of RO is less on dark syrup which is usually later in season. I blame RO but most is probably caused in suction lines of pipelines in first couple runs.. I like dark syrup also.

Except for sugar on snow, maple butter and candies that needs to be light colored. Dark is definitely better in baking and beans.

 

Interesting, I can't wait to tap some trees at our new place and do some "experimenting". I have yet to locate any sugars yet, just reds.

I definitely prefer "strong" flavors in food...just my tastebuds I guess. I heard a story about Ben, of Ben and Jerry's...that his taste buds were less sensitive so he developed their recipes to have bold flavor profiles as well as big chunks of cookie dough etc

 

DaveGunter I'm almost embarrassed to tell you this my grandfather is probably rolling over in his grave. You can tap Reds and get maple syrup. You will not get the lighter grade syrup you will get a darker heavier grade what you say you prefer. This works best if the reds are in a rocky soil or on ledge versus swampy areas. Your in Maine which might have a rock or 2

My great-uncle had a hundred 50 taps in a place called Maple Corners Vermont. Just north of Montpelier. There were about 25 red Maples we would tap but would not collect those until later in the season as it would ruin the fancy.

Of course they were farmers, and during the war when you had food rationing. They saved sugar stamps for frosting on birthday cakes. All of Grandma's recipes had handwritten notes how to add maple syrup to make the recipe work.

 

Maple corners! Haven’t heard about it in 25 years! A friend had a camp up there. We tapped maples up there and boiled on a campfire , pretty primitive, but we made syrup.

 

Yep I've tapped reds before, it's more like 60:1 IIRC, and you usually get more "sand" you have to filter out. Somebody around here was talking about Birch syrup too.

 

Yup birch syrup is a thing.. I tried it..

rek. uncles place has big blue barn next to pond..

 

Artificial flavors make their way in to so many products these days it's not surprising so many ( younger ? ) people are so unfamiliar with what unprocessed food basics actually taste and even look like.

How many people think synthetic vanilla and castoreum are what vanilla are supposed to taste like rather than real vanilla bean vanilla ?
Castoreum - Wikipedia


I've tasted birch syrup in Norway and they had a birch "juice" which looked more like a flavored water which is what it may have been as my Norwegian is not good by any metric and rely on a friend's translations that aren't much better.
Supposedly you can find birch tree products in Alaska and I would guess parts of Canada as well.