Maple syrup season is in full swing up here! Do you like maply syrup?  

Great response! So "into it."
By the way, if I haven't told you already. I love that name you chose. Recycled Goth is soooo cool. Do you have a discussion about it? I love recycling things and while I couldn't pull off goth because it just wouldn't be my lifestyle, I think people who can carry it off look incredible.

That is soo wild. When I ran out of milk, I tried water. That's how uninspired I am. I also tried orange juice, ha, ha, that was bad.

Have you tried walnuts or fresh pecans with it? I love maple sugar and walnuts, so syrup and walnuts on cereal has got to be to die for.

Thanks for a new way to eat cereal (although I have had it on old-fashioned oatmeal and it's great). Doesn't cream and syrup totally undo the diet aspect of Special K?

Well, I like Special K anyways and usually wouldn't be dieting as such!
Oh yes, pecans I LOVE! Thanks now for that idea! I am not so keen on walnuts though.

Up here, we used to have an IHOP and they had the banana pancakes that you make with either walnuts or pecans on top with maple syrup and man was that good. Like you died and went to heaven. I'd probably like the apple or the cinnamon or I'd mix them together. I only recently had and found out what a snickerdoodle was. Otherwise, I would be going, what?

Thanks, this has been fun and take care.

Ah Maine, so you got the real stuff! Most people know about Vermont (they advertise a lot) and Quebec, Canada, but most people don't know NY in the North Country part of the state makes it, too.

We used to help out and it was great. The smell of a sugar house is to die for. It's also fun gathering sap. Lots of walking on mostly nice days in beautiful air.

I think Youtube might have how it's made, so you could watch it on there. It's not the same, but might be as close as someone living far away from syrup country could get.

Yep, I got the real stuff and it was fantastic. Store bought is good but just not the same as homemade maple syrup. It's beyond wonderful. My father was born in Maine but raised in the south. Had quite an accent, as you can imagine.

See response number 6 for more helpful into about making the store bought stuff better.

I totally agree. The store bought maple syrup is good but not nearly as thick or tasty. Can get the true maple flavor using the homemade syrup.

Given your area, and interestingly, some research I've recently done, I would say that birch syrup would be very likely. Black birch is the best syrup maker, but the other birches are ok, too. It's just that the flavor is very strong with that particular birch. There are other great syrup makers, too. Birch is highly revered because it can make homes, bowls or baskets, and even outterwear, but that's usually white or yellow (also called river) birch usually. You can also draw or paint on it so it can be used for artwork like some of the baskets are very artistic. The inner cambium bark layer can be used for food in emergencies, but because of its mineral content, it's great to use as a supplement period. Also the sap can be drunk as it is to provide water because it takes even more gallons of sap to make birch syrup than to make maple syrup (lower sugar content). So there isn't much sugar until you boil the heck out of it.

I think some nut trees and another tree that grows below us both can also produce syrup. The birch season, it's reported, is after the maple one.

Yes, the price has gone up so much that many back yard evaporators are springing up. It's been 38 to 40 degrees F during the day with glorious sunshine and below 32 degrees F at night to create perfict back yard small time operator (without a sugar shack) syrup (the shacks are needed in inclement weather and so far here, the weather had been gorgeous-knock on wood, don't want to curse it).

Thanks for responding. I don't know what ours will be per American Gallon, but $60 American wouldn't surprise me.

My Mom used to reboil and can what we would get in the stores if in large containers. We always bought large containers. A short reboil will make it pretty thick. Just can't bring it up to temp too fast or leave it that way for every long. I think 15 minutes just to make sure no germs get into it. I think I saw how to do it (canning maple syrup) on the net once or twice. I think I heard trace minerals before which is more than our over-processed sugars ever do for us.

Thanks for dropping by, I didn't know you knew about maple syrup. It's great when you can help. They've taken most of the fun out of it with big commercial operations.

Our pancakes have butter and maple syrup, our waffles can have ice cream and maple syrup (but usually just the syrup, but I did have Belgian Waffles with ice cream and blueberry pie filling before-that was way more like desert than breakfast), and our French toast is made with cinnamon in the egg and milk for dipping, so we put syrup on afterward ( I don't use cinnamon sugar, just the cinnamon).

Yes, the second artificially flavored corn syrup hits my tongue, I think YUCK! When my parents became severely diabetic, they hated that, so they switched to polander all fruit jelly.

We grew up with helping out and every Sunday was something with maple syrup. Different if you don't live up here. Thanks and take care.

I guess its because I've been off the fake flavored syrups since I was about 12, that I have found other things to eat my stuff with

and you cook the french toast with cinnamon, but use cinnamon sugar (or cinnamon splenda) on it

we never did french toast with syrup here

Yeah, French toast is pretty moist, you can probably do that. IF I run out of syrup, I use honey or half mashed and half whole berries. Those are good, too. Thanks and take care.

Those are called French Canadian beans (in some quarters up here) and I prefer them to the molasses ones. I like molasses in a lot of things, but not the way most people put them in beans (think molasses with a pork fat after taste). I also have made beans this way, but not very often. People like those molasses with a little bit of beans and meat taste up here and it just gags me. But when I just make some for me and package it into small personal bean packages for lunch and to put in the freezer, I like either maple syrup or honey in my beans and in moderation. Even the brown sugar beans, in moderation aren't bad. If they would do the molasses in moderation, I wouldn't mind them either, but you pick up the beans and the molasses is running all over the place like you need to drain the beans first. Sorry to complain. But I'm always so greatful when someone shows up with either maple syrup or honey baked beans or even the brown sugar ones. Bless you, I'm sure you save someone from overdosing on molasses in the extreme.