Terry Walters, author of CLEAN FOOD writes about Maple Syrup

Terry Walters is the author of CLEAN FOOD the bestselling cookbook about easting seasonal food close to the source. She's fantastic! Here is is writing on her blog about maple syrup!

How Sweet It Is!
by Terry Walters

Liquid Gold – that’s what we call it. Maple syrup is our sweetener of choice and just recently I stopped by the sugar shack of my favorite producer, Eastman Long, to replenish my supply. My timing couldn’t have been more perfect as Eastman was breaking just long enough to show me around and explain how my beloved maple syrup gets from tree to table. This is one product I know is clean – I know the producer, I know the product, it’s minimally processed and its definitely delicious.

This is the sugar shack of Eastman Long. Each winter, he and a crew of 4 others (mostly family) trek through the woods on snowshoes wearing equipment belts almost as heavy as my gallon jug of syrup. Together they tap 11,000 trees. That’s right, 11,000 trees!!! The sap runs through lines into this house where it is purified and heated just hot enough (below boiling) to separate out the water, which is about 97%.

The season is a short one and just the right conditions are required for the sap to flow, but the work is year-round making sure the lines are clean, the machinery tuned up and ready to go the instant the sap starts running, and that the whole system works to perfection.

Read the whole thing at: http://terrywalters.net/2012/04/how-sweet-it-is/