Blustery Elmvale Festival Still a Success - Check Out the Video!

Along with the appearance of the spring peepers, the Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival usually corresponds with the end of another maple season. This year, the festival wound up on a rather blustery Saturday and still lots of faithful customers came out to celebrate maple with us. Thanks to all of those who braved the wintery weather!

There was a nice piece on the A Channel News on Saturday highlighting the Elmvale Festival. You can find it here. If you fast-forward to the eight-minute mark, it runs for about two minutes. If you watch closely, you'll see our own special thirty seconds of fame from about 9:00min - 9:30min. You're a natural, Jesse!

For those who didn't make it to Elmvale on Saturday, and would still like to stock up on the 2011 crop, we will be open from 9:00am - 5:00pm on Good Friday and also on Easter Sunday. Our sugarhouse will be closed on Saturday, when you will find us returning to the Orillia Farmers' Market for their own special Maple Syrup Festival. After Sunday, we will return to keeping our usual irregular hours so please call ahead -- (705) 835-5780.

Is Maple Syrup The New Super Food?

Check this out! New studies out of Rhode Island have found that Maple Syrup is high in anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory substances similar to those found in tea, berries, red wine, and flax seeds. Just one more reason to love Maple Syrup!

You can read more about the study here.

McCutcheon's "Seriously Rules"!

It was a pleasant and flattering surprise to see ourselves mentioned in the National Post last week. While reviewing four "brands" of maple syrup, Mary Luz Mejia took the opportunity to throw in her two cents:

"Before I forget: I want to name-check the best brand of syrup I have ever encountered, which isn’t available retail — only at farmers’ markets and maybe online. It’s called McCutcheon’s, and it seriously rules."

You can read the full article HERE.

Thanks, Mary Luz!

Pouding Chomeur (Poor Man's Pudding)

Maclean's Magazine recently featured a story about "Pouding Chomeur", a traditional Quebecois desert that is made with Maple Syrup. Translated literally, "Pouding Chomeur" means "unemployed person's pudding".

You can find the article here:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/02/08/the-very-rich-poor-man’s-pudding/

Dad was so tempted by the sound of the dish that he baked up a batch for us, and it really was delicious! We had it warm with some vanilla icecream...

The recipe that he used is as follows:

Pouding Chomeur

BATTER:
1 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 C milk
1/4 C melted butter
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1/2 C raisins

SAUCE:
1 1/2 C water
1 C real maple syrup
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp cornstarch


PREPARATION:
Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and nutmeg in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, butter, and lemon rind. Pour over dry ingredients. Sprinkle with raisins and stir until just combined. Spread in greased 8" square glass baking dish

Whisk together water, maple syrup, butter, and cornstarch in a small bowl. Pour over batter.

Bake at 350F until golden and firm to the touch; 40-45 minutes.

World's Largest Maple Sugar Candy Doesn't Make It Into Guinness

From The Shoreline Beacon's article "No Guiness record for maple candy":

Saugeen Valley Conservation Foundation is still puzzling over its failure to win a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the largest Maple Sugar Candy.

The giant confection lost out to an oversize metal sap bucket.

"It was in a category we were rather surprised (about)," said spokesperson Shannon Wood. "They actually lumped us together with the largest sap bucket in the world. We really couldn’t figure out how you compare apples to apples in that respect."

Not having a Guiness Book handy, I turned to Google and the most recent reference I could find for a world-record setting sap bucket was one built in Elmira, Ontario, about 6 years ago, which was 40 inches tall and held 133 gallons. It's big but not really THAT impressive, however the 1,469 lb jack o' lantern carved by Scott Cully from the world's largest pumpkin back in October 31, 2005, now that's impressive!

CBC's Canadian Maple Syrup short feature

Broadcast in December 13, 1978, "Canadian maple syrup" from The CBC Digital Archives Website. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.