Peggy Smith

If you are interested in finding sugarhouses in Vermont go to this website:

http://www.vermontmaple.org/

If you would like to try another great maple syrup recipe, try this one:

SUGARBUSH MOUNTAIN MAPLE MOUSSE
1 envelope plus 2 tsp. unflavored
gelatin
1/2 c. cold water
4 egg yolks, well beaten
1 c. pure maple syrup
1/2 c. light brown sugar
4 egg whites
2 c. whipping cream, chilled
Sprinkle gelatin on water; let soften 5 minutes, then set cup in pan of hot water. Stir until gelatin dissolves. Add gelatin to beaten egg yolks, mix into maple syrup and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and coats spoon. Do not let mixture boil. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar, blending well. Transfer to a large bowl and cool to room temperature. Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Whip cream only until stiff enough to hold its shape. With rubber spatula, fold cream gently into maple syrup mixture. Then fold in egg whites until whites no longer show. Spoon mousse mixture into a 1 1/2 quart mold that has been rinsed in cold water. Cover top with plastic and chill at least 4 hours or until firm.

If you love this recipe, pass it on to a friend to try. Here is a way to win a jug of maple syrup:

Tell your friend to make a comment on my blog and you both might win a jug of maple syrup. Your friend has to mention your name and you have to make a comment on my blog also. Oh and you have to try the recipe.

I am sitting here watching it pour rain and thinking that March is one of the most maddening months in Vermont. It can be absolutely the best skiing of the year with the most spectacular sunshine and warm days on the mountain that you have ever experienced, or it can be like it is today - pouring rain. But despite the change in weather almost daily, it is one of my favorite months.

Why? Because it is maple sugaring time. The sap has begun to run in the trees, you drive down one of the roads in Stowe and you see a trail of blue lines decorating the maple trees. When I am showing people real estate they ask me what the process is to make maple syrup. Most of them know the syrup comes from trees and that it taste good.

Back in the day, as they say, the maple trees were tapped with a spigot from which a bucket was hung. Sometimes a tree could have three buckets on it at once. Oh, I forgot to mention that there are various types of maple trees but the ones that produce the syrup are sugar maples. Makes sense doesn’t it? Anyway, collecting the syrup from a full bucket meant that you had to team up the horses or start up the tractor , then with a holding tank on the back of a sled, you dump each bucket into the holding tank. Taking the holding tank full of sap back to the sugar house, it is siphoned into a larger holding tank, that feeds into the evaporator. From there it goes into the back pan where it boils over chambers to the front pan where it boils through a series of chambers until it becomes syrup.

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