Maple Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail

I had someone inquiring at the Farmers' Market yesterday about a recipe for a maple cocktail for her gourmet club. I was able to find this video on youtube with instructions for making a maple old fashioned whiskey cocktail. Looks delicious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UksnUyBfUA

Maple Whipped Cream

Happy Thanksgiving!! I'm currently baking up a pumpkin pie for our family dinner tonight, and thought I'd share my idea of topping it with some maple whipped cream. It's super easy to make and is great with apple, pumpkin, or blueberry pie, but would also make an extra special topping for pancakes or waffles.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cold whipping cream
2 tablespoons cold maple syrup

Preparation:
Have mixing bowl and beaters chilled for best results. Beat whipped cream until soft peaks form; add maple syrup and beat until firm. Makes about 1 cup of whipped cream. Note: this recipe is easily doubled.

Maple Rhubarb Pie

The perfect end to your spring BBQ or picnic

3 cups rhubarb, cut up
2/3 cup pure maple syrup
1 egg
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
Pinch of salt

Beat the egg, then add the sugar, maple syrup and flour. Mix thoroughly, and then stir in the rhubarb.

Bake in a two-crust pie at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Fresh Fruit Salad with Maple Syrup

A sophisticated and elegant twist on a very simple dessert.
(serves 5)

1/2 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons orange or almond flavored liqueur,
or rum or cognac (optional)
4 cups fresh fruit pieces (strawberries, peaches, apples, grapefruit, orange, banana, cantaloupe, blueberries, kiwi fruit, etc.)

Mix maple syrup and liqueur together. Gently stir maple syrup mixture into fresh fruit pieces. Allow to stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Serve chilled. Great with plain yogurt or ice cream!

Grilled Maple Sweet Potato Slices

Flavored with maple syrup and cinnamon, grilled sweet potatoes are a unique alternative to regular potatoes

2 sweet potatoes
1 large zip-lock bag
½ cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
Aluminum foil

Wash sweet potatoes and slice lengthwise about 1/4-inch thick. Place maple syrup, cinnamon, and brown sugar in zip lock bag, add sliced sweet potatoes and let air out before you seal up. Mix with your fingers so that all the slices are coated. Marinate in fridge until ready to cook.

When ready to grill, place entire contents of bag in foil and close up, poke some vent holes on top so steam can escape and put on grill for about 5-7 minutes. They should be tender but still crisp.

Take out of foil and grill to brown more if desired.

Maple Salmon with Asparagus

A quick and delicious spring dinner (Serves 2)

2 salmon steaks
Olive oil or butter
¼ cup pure maple syrup
10 stalks fresh asparagus
Slivered almonds for garnish

Prepare Salmon Steaks
Sauté in heavy fry pan in small amount of hot olive oil or butter until brown and then turn to brown the other side. Remove from pan and drain oil.

Return salmon to hot pan and pour 1/4 cup maple syrup over the steaks. After a couple of minutes turn the steak again to coat the other side. Serve hot.

Prepare Sautéed Asparagus
In a fry pan, heat a small amount of olive oil. Toss in fresh asparagus and sauté until heated through. This takes less than five minutes.

Garnish with slivered almonds.

Maple Ginger Glaze

Great on the BBQ with chicken, pork, or salmon (serves 6)

1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons olive oil or melted butter
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Fresh chopped parsley for garnish

Heat olive oil or melt butter in saucepan. Sauté garlic until lightly browned. Add maple syrup and simmer for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Grill meat on the first side for 6 minutes, then turn and brush the seared side generously with the glaze. Cook for another 6 minutes, and turn again. Brush with the glaze and cook for 1 minute. Remove from grill and serve. Garnish with parsley if desired.

Maple Classic Dressing

A hint of maple flavor adds complexity to a simple dressing. (makes 1 cup)



1/3 cup cider or balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Whisk together the vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, garlic, and pepper. Gradually whisk in the oil. Drizzle the dressing over salad greens and toss before serving.

Refrigerate the remaining dressing.

Thanks for a Great Season!

The sap run has ended for another year, but this time we're not disappointed to see it go. 2009 will go down in our records as one of the best seasons in the last decade! It feels great to see our shelves full of maple syrup, and to know that we'll be able to see lots of happy customers at the Farmers' Markets this year!

It's just like after a big party -- everyone goes home and you've got to clean up the mess! We will be closed at the farm for the next few weeks as we will be out in the sugarbush cleaning and taking down our lines. If you would like to come out to the farm to purchase your maple syrup, honey, or pottery, please call ahead to arrange a
time ~ (705) 835-5780 ~

You will be able to find us at the Orillia Farmers' Market this Saturday, April 18th, and then the following Saturday, April 25th, we will be selling at the Elmvale Maple Syrup Festival (please see www.elmvalemaplesyrup.ca for details). Beginning May 2nd, you can find us at the Orillia Farmers' Market every Saturday, and the Brickworks Farmers' Market in Toronto begins on May 23rd.

Thanks everyone for a great season, and we hope to see some of you at the markets soon!

April Showers...or...Snowstorm?

Well, last week we thought the season was ending with no more frost in the forecast, and now here we are with a foot of snow on the ground! Apparently the "old-timers" call a surprise snowstorm like this in April "Sugar Snow" due to the fact that the sap often runs so well afterwards. We're hoping the folklore holds true, and we'll have a few more good sap days this weekend as the weather forecast predicts.

We have not had any sap for a number of days now, but we had some good runs at the beginning of last week. There remains no sign of buds on the trees yet, so if the weather co-operates and makes the sap run, we are rested and ready to make some more delicious maple syrup!

We do expect that this will be our final weekend of sugarmaking for the season, and we will be open to visitors from 1pm - 5pm all weekend, including Good Friday. It sounds like a beautiful, sunny weekend; perfect for a final visit to the sugarbush!

Here's To Your Health...

Some of our customers can't wait to enjoy their jug of McCutcheon's Maple Syrup!

Great Season So Far

"Dad says this year the weather's just right
Warm bright mornings and cold clear nights
This time we're goin' to get a real bumper crop
Tap that flow and it ain't never gonna stop!"

Those of you that have heard the Maple Syrup song that plays on our website will know what I mean when I say "Dad says this year the weather's just right"! We're all happily humming that tune around here, as so far this year it is the perfect theme song! We've been having an excellent season so far; the weather pattern has been just right with it freezing overnight and thawing during the days, and as a result we've been able to collect sap almost every single day since the season started on March 7th. The syrup that we've been making this season has a wonderful maple flavour too!

I just drove past the farm on my way home from work and saw lots of steam coming out of the sugarhouse. Dad has had a lot of overnight boils this year, with the sap running late into the evening. I expect tonight might be one of those nights with the temperature staying mild, and the windy, rainy weather seems to bring the sap for whatever reason.

Of course, the season is not over yet, and we're always a little worried about a sudden warm spell putting an end to things. However, the weather forecast still looks promising so we're hoping for another week of good sap days before it warms up for good. We've got all of our fingers crossed -- hopefully the song will be right and we'll wind up with "a real bumper crop"!

Opening Weekend

Thanks to everyone who made it out for a visit this weekend. It was nice to see some familiar faces out enjoying the spring weather, and some new faces too!

The weather made for a perfect opening weekend. We had a small run of sap on Saturday as it didn't warm up until later in the afternoon, and we collected up enough sap to boil later in the evening. Today was an absolutely perfect sap day with temperatures up to ten degrees. The sap was running into the tank so quickly it was hard to keep up! We boiled some down this afternoon and it's still running well. Looks like it'll be a late night in the sugarhouse tonight...

If you weren't able to make it out to the farm this weekend, we will be open seven days a week from 1pm - 5pm from now until the end of the season. It's nice to see our shelves full of syrup after having been bare for so long. Come on out and have a taste of spring!

First Syrup of the Season

We were able to collect some sap this past weekend and had our first small boil on Sunday. Then Tuesday brought some wild weather with the wind and rain, but it also brought the sap. We had a very large run that carried on through the night, and Dad stayed up boiling until 5am! Quite the start to the season!

The good news is that we have some beautiful, fresh, first-run syrup bottled up now, and will have it for sale at the farm beginning this Saturday. We will be open on Saturday from 1pm - 5pm and every day after during those hours until the season ends.

We hope to see lots of you at the farm this weekend enjoying the beginning of your March break. It sounds like it's going to be beautiful weather, perfect for sap, and nice days for visiting the sugarbush. As usual, we will have the fireplace on in the sugarhouse, and you are welcome to come watch us boil the syrup and have a taste of the new crop. Hope you see you soon!

Finished Tapping!

I'm just in from the sugarbush after tapping the last of our 6500 trees today. We had a good blitz this week with the warm weather and lots of help from family memebers, and managed to get our trees tapped in the shortest amount of time yet! It feels great to have it done, as the weather forecast predicts some very good sap days to come. Now we just have some final pieces to put together, and we'll be all set. Bring on the sap!

Getting Ready

We finished stretching out the lines last week, and we've been taking advantage of the warm weather over the past two days to begin tapping. The sap was actually running today it was so mild! As soon as we drilled a hole, the sap would start dripping from it, running all the way down the tree. However, the forecast for the weekend is for another deep freeze, so the season is not quite upon us yet. We can feel it just around the corner though, so we're eager to finish tapping in order to be ready when it arrives. I think the anticipation is what makes this such an exciting time of year!

Back to the Bush!

Well, it's that time of year again! The past four days have been beautiful, sunny, and mild enough for us to get out in the woods, laying out and stretching our lines in preparation for the 2009 maple season. We've been able to get lots of work done in a short time so far, as the walking in the sugarbush is relatively easy; not too much snow, and it's almost crunchy enough to walk on without snowshoes.

The long term forecast predicts another two weeks or so of cold, wintery weather before warming up at the beginning of March. If that forecast holds true, we should be right on track! We're hoping for a good season this year so we can re-stock our empty shelves! Wish us luck, and keep checking back for updates as the season gets underway.