Maple syrup

Just bought some '100% maple syrup' locally, but it's VERY clear that it is not. Must be diluted with water as it is extremely non-viscous. Tastes sugary as well. Anyone know of a good brand of the REAL stuff from VT / NH? I live in N NJ, so perhaps by mail? Store?? website??

South Meadow Farm, Lake Placid, NY. www.southmeadow.com I recommend the medium amber. Direct linkhttp://www.maplesugarworks.com

Not quite sure what this has to do with hiking, but I am something of a syrup snob, so here goes...

First of all, everyone knows the best maple syrup comes from Vermont.
Ahem.

I get mine from my uncle, but any of these are probably good:
http://vermontmaple.org/maple-by-mail.php

Keep in mind that the darker the grade, the heartier/richer the flavor:
http://vermontmaple.org/grades.php

I get mine from Fuller's in Lancaster NH, but 14 miles from where I grew up.

http://www.fullerssugarhouse.com/

It was more fun makin it ourselves back in the day, but their stuff is good. Fortunately my brother gave me some mason jars full from his small homemade batch last year. The best!

PS- Watch out for the shelves filling up with "Table Syrup", its garbage!

"Not quite sure what this has to do with hiking"

Agree

Real grade A light amber maple syrup is not very viscous and has a rather delicate flavor. It is nothing like the "syrup" from Mrs. Butterworth or Aunt Jemima. There are also medium and dark ambers, which get progressively darker and thicker. Grade B is even stronger.

Get yourself hiking in VT in the spring and you'll see plenty of roadside sugar shacks going - the plume of steam/moisture out the top is a clear indicator of a boil. That's as fresh and natural as it comes. Bring cash. Take some maple candy for the next hike, and maybe even grab a sugar-on-snow for a treat.

I'm sure we could make this on-topic by discussing sugar shacks near hiking trails. I'll start with the one on Rte 4 in Mendon, VT between Killington / Pico / Mendon and Rutland.

MichaelJ said:

I'm sure we could make this on-topic by discussing sugar shacks near hiking trails. I'll start with the one on Rte 4 in Mendon, VT between Killington / Pico / Mendon and Rutland.

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South Meadow Farms is a couple miles west on Rt. 73 from the Cascade/Porter and Pitchoff trailheads. Also, maple candy is a great energy source for hiking and maple syrup on pancakes as a pre-hike carb energy source.

There, now this thread is about maple syrup and hiking.

Also, when we hike we see lots of maples. And Eddie is right. You can't beat maple "sugar" for a quick boost. And it's soooo delicious.

Carry a little syrup in your pack and when you run into wonderful fresh powder, you can make and eat maple snow balls.
( I do eat fresh snow, providing it's not yellow).

Over the years I have made maple cakes specifically for the quick, more natural, energy they supply for hiking. When made with an amount of cornmeal they also become less susceptible to "melting" and have a nice consistency for eating, albeit it a bit hard.

Are you a member of Costco? Their maple syrup is good. I think it's made in Ontario.

"First of all, everyone knows the best maple syrup comes from Vermont. --- Ahem."

I disagree. For a taste of damn good New Hampshire syrup you might try any number of local sugarbushes --- do a search for NH maple producers.
Especially good stuff is made at Pinestead farm in Franconia/Easton --- http://www.pinesteadfarmlodge.com/. Made from the sap of maples right at the base of Kinsman and the Cannon Balls.

Is this Pinestead's sugar shack off the Mt Kinsman Trail?



Does anyone know where you can get the maple syrup from the extensive array of taps and tubing one sees going in from the Appalachia trailhead? It all appears to come down to this tank:

The Appalachia system was owned by the Parker's on Randolph hill road, their shack is adjacent to the Boothman Springs trail off of Mt Crescent road. I am not sure how active they are after the owners got divorced. There is no retail operation that I know of. There is a much larger operation owned by John Scarinza that has been built about halfway up Randolph Hill on RT 2 on the north side east of Appalachia. This area was blasted by the ice storm of 1998 but I expect the sugar bush is slowly coming back. I am not aware if he is selling retail as he really only got serious since retirement a few years ago.

A good northern NH sugar house with a website is http://www.bissonssugarhouse.com/, Its a old family run operation that has been modernizing over the last few years. They put out excellent quality and their specialties like Maple Taffy are in big demand (unfortunately I dont think it ships well). The trip up Cate's Hill road in Berlin NH is worth the trip just for the views and a visit during sugar season is on my list every year, many larger operations use oil fired heaters and its just not the same compared to a wood fired evaporator. He keeps a list for us folks who like the end of the run syrup which used to be discounted but now is selling at a premium in many areas due to it popularity for cooking.

Canada subsidizes maple sugar production and reportedly has warehouses full of the stuff that they store to keep the prices high. There are frequently bootleggers that haul the syrup down to the US and resell at a premium over what they can sell in canada.

rup said:

Just bought some '100% maple syrup' locally, but it's VERY clear that it is not. Must be diluted with water as it is extremely non-viscous. Tastes sugary as well.

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I've been sugaring for about 7 years now and am somewhat knowledgedable in this area. I would point out that there are severe fines for "adulterating" maple syrup in VT, as well as in the other New England states. Although aldulteration is very uncommon, some people do still try to get away with it, and they always get caught. The most commonly attempted method is adding cane sugar to reduce the amount of sap and energy inputs needed to produce the syrup. Watered down syrup is less commonly tried, because if syrup does not have a high enough density, it spoils very quickly. For this reason, maple syrup can only be legally offered for sale if it has a density of at least 66% sugar by weight. This works out to a little over 11 pounds per gallon. Sugarmakers use a unit of density called "Brix" to measure the syrup density.

While all pure maple syrup has the same density (between 66-67 Brix), syrup viscosity can vary somewhat, and the sugarmaker has virtually no control over it. (Yes, density and viscosity are two different, but generally related things). In general, the lighter grades of syrup, typically made in the early part of the season, tend to be less viscous then the darker grades, even though they all have the same density, by law. Grade A Light, (called "Fancy Grade" in VT) is the lightest grade, and tends to have only a very slight maple flavor. It also tends to be less viscous then the darker grades. Syrup newbies who are used to Mrs. Butterworth might think its been "watered" down. To complicate things even more, temperature has a profound effect. Syrup thins out very quickly as it is warmed, relative to syrup straight out of your refrigerator.

If I had to guess, I'd say you had some warm (i.e. room temperature) Grade A Light, with a particularly delicate/subtle maple flavor. If you think otherwise, you should contact your state's Department of Agriculture and report the suspected adulteration. They can run certain tests to check the purity of the syrup, since such nefarious activity gives all sugarmakers a bad name.

Happy Sugaring!

peakbagger said:

The Appalachia system was owned by the Parker's on Randolph hill road, their shack is adjacent to the Boothman Springs trail off of Mt Crescent road. I am not sure how active they are after the owners got divorced.

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Judging by the amount of disrepair visible in that tubing system, I don't think it's very active at all. As a sugarmaker, I was appalled when I saw the taps still plugged into the trees this fall. This is a huge no-no because it prevents the tap-hole from healing. Any sugarmaker worth his salt knows you need to pull your taps and flush out your lines at the end of the sugaring season. They apparently didn't do either.

If you're in the neighborhood we make a little maple syrup here too.

http://www.nysmaple.com/

A few hikes come to mind where we've passed through or near a sugar bush. Modern or commercial operations typically have the tubes gravity feeding a holding tank which typically have a spigot from which, in some cases, one can fill a water bottle with sap. Though very diluted, it boils down something like 40:1 to get syrup, it have sufficient maple taste to whet my appetite.

Returning home the day after a hike is fun when the sap is running and sugar shacks are operating. Two places we've stopped in past years include Christies on rt. 2 near Lancaster, NH and Bentons on rt. 175 in Thornton. Both are seasonal operations though Bentons is associated with a campground and some trails which expand its operation.

Christies has a modern oil fired boiler and way back, they were known as Presidential Pancakes then, you could get all-you-can-eat pancakes with real maybe syrup while sitting on tractor seat stools at a counter. They offered small samples of the various grades.

Bentons, at least a few years ago, still used a wood fired boiler and offered a variety of breakfast choices.

I haven't been able to differentiate the geographic source of maple syrup but do favor the heavier late season, almost industrial, grades over the lighter and more expensive grades. I can remember buying by the gallon in the low $20s but that's nearly the price of a half quart now. Trader Joes has 16 oz. for under $20, probably from Canada which may help explain why the maple leaf appears on Canadian currency.

I've never heard a maple sugar operation admit to a good year.

There are some real low grades of maple syrup that the consumers dont get (or would want to buy), McClures in Littleton NH is one of the buyers of the low grade stuff that they blend and sell. I have a suspicion that 1% maple syrup in Log Cabin syrup is the dregs from the bottom of the batch. The new style taps and vacuum systems are extending the season signficantly and in theory there is more of the good stuff but a sharp change in weather can still shut off the taps in a heartbeat.

Now if I could find a local source of birch syrup I would be all set.

SLOPESIDE SYRUP! (They sell it online, too.)

Stan said:

Two places we've stopped in past years include Christies on rt. 2 near Lancaster, NH and Bentons on rt. 175 in Thornton.

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Glad to hear Christies is still goin. She was a teacher at our high school too, and me and 2 of my best friends worked in their sugarbush for 3 seasons or so.