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It seems like a good time to dig into the idea of "sugaring." Once upon a time, people didn't tap maple trees to make maple syrup, they tapped it to make maple sugar, hence today's terms "sugarmaker," "sugaring season," "sugarwoods," and "sugarhouse."  Now, we love our maple syrup, but it never hurts to find new ways to enjoy it. So we've been playing with making maple sugar. This is a very basic process, you boil the maple syrup to a certain temperature and then stir it to get all the steam out and it granulates into sugar. Easy peezy. Ha!...

Okay, citrus fruit doesn't grow in Vermont, but it is in season in parts of the U.S. around the holidays. In the spirit of supporting other farmers, we tried out candying citrus peel with maple syrup and our first attempt, while not perfect, was quite tasty! Rather than share a tried and true recipe, we're just going to note what we did (modified from Fannie Farmer) and encourage you to try something similar.... We used three organic oranges (this is critical - the peel is where pesticides collect so use organic, and be sure to wash the oranges well with...

This is a great dressing for winter as it has enough oomph and body to stand up to the hearty last crops of kale or to cabbage-based salads. As is often the case, this is a recipe that is really just a jumping-off point for figuring out a dressing that you love and will use every day of winter! So here we go: start with a 1/4 c of oil, we love both olive and walnut, and mix in 1/8 c of maple syrup. Add a generous tablespoon of miso - for our most recent batch we used a sweet...

Chowder is an endlessly versatile soup, and is super kid-friendly because it's easy to make it on the sweet side (do sweet root vegetables instead of potatoes, add a touch of maple). And you can leave the vegetables in chunks or do more of a puree. Want it thick? More potatoes, less broth or milk. Want it thinner? Add more broth or milk. Easy peezy! Here's what we did tonight: 1 apple, peeled and cut into chunks; 1/2 sweet potato peeled and cut into chunks; 2 small parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks. Simmer these together covered in chicken stock...

This is the season for egg nog! And homemade egg nog is a wonderful thing so long as you are careful with your ingredients. Most recipes use white sugar, but of course we use maple syrup to sweeten our nog. Here is a recipe Riva posted on her blog a couple of years ago (a two-part blog post, Part I and Part II here if you are interested!): 3 cups egg yolks (pastured eggs from a farmer you trust please!) 1/2 c cream 1/2 c milk 1/8 - 1/4 c maple syrup 3 egg whites, beaten just until soft and...