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hockeybobby
03-19-2008, 10:23 AM
That's what I was thinking! ;D

Let me clear up a nasty rumour right now: I do not have a mullet. I don't even know someone who does. Maybe that is a younger man thing? I've kept my hair real short forever. Too many showers throughout the week due to hockey, to have to bother with long hair. Most hockey guys are the same. Oh yeah...I have a little thin/bald spot on my crown now. Mullet with bald spot = definitely not cool.

I don't drink Labatts either. I'm a "whatever is on sale" kind of beer drinker. Right now it's President's Choice various buck-a-beer brands. And even then, I'm like 3 or 4 beers a week, if that (except when I'm in the sugarshack for 12 hours straight cooking). I'm not a good enough beer drinker to be considered uber-Canadian. :D

In topic news: We have finished tapping the trees. We have 160 trees tapped consisting of 40 trees lining a farmers laneway, and 120 trees on the side of the road. We have roughly 500 taps installed in total, which in a decent year should yield 500 liters of syrup. Gathering and boiling begins this week. I'm off work for the next 8 days. yay.

Dirty Ernie
03-19-2008, 10:07 PM
Mullet with a bald spot = Skullet. There are a few NHLers sporting them.

hockeybobby
03-19-2008, 10:10 PM
Mullet with a bald spot = Skullet. There are a few NHLers sporting them.

haha...skullet. Is that like the kim mitchell look? skullet. :D

Susan Wayward
03-19-2008, 10:23 PM
I loooooooove maple syrup. Not least because it goes well with the greatest of the meals, breakfast! And mmmmm maple butter and maple candy and maple sugar. I am really jealous because I would totally take a vacation where I learned how to harvest sap and boil syrup. Oh man, I have to do that sometime. Seriously.

mmmmm maple. Now I have to find a place to get some maple candy.

Bob_Loblaw
03-19-2008, 10:45 PM
Anyone ever get a Maple Latte from Starbucks? My fave:yummy:

Susan Wayward
03-19-2008, 10:57 PM
No, but I totally just drank maple syrup from a spoon.
<-- poor impulse control.

Lapaholic
03-20-2008, 05:39 AM
Maple syrup drizzled on the foamy head of a LaBatts beer ... Mmmm mmm!!!

hockeybobby
03-20-2008, 08:19 AM
No, but I totally just drank maple syrup from a spoon.
<-- poor impulse control.

I've always got some in my fridge of course, and I will (and not just like once a year) pop the lid and take a big mouthful. mmmm. While the syrup season is ongoing, I'm consuming so much that I do get sick of it for a while. When cooking, there is constant tasting of the hot sap and syrup...the taste, naturally is the most important quality control issue.

For a vacation, Mennonite area of Southern Ontario is a good choice for a weekend or whatever. Elmira/St Jacobs area. Catch the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival, and the St. Jacobs Maple Syrup museum, and all the nice shops in the area as well. There is an old steam train which operates (I think) between Toronto and St. Jacobs.

The Mennonites sell syrup out of their Horse/buggy on the side of the road for roughly $10 for a LITER mason jar. Unreal - but real.

hockeybobby
03-20-2008, 08:30 AM
Anyone ever get a Maple Latte from Starbucks? My fave:yummy:

Not yet...but I will now. Good call Bob.

hockeybobby
03-22-2008, 03:34 PM
Update:
Went up to Elmira to visit the Menonite maple syrup supply farm this afternoon. Picked up some cases of bottles I use for gifts...clear glass in the shape of a maple leaf. They're $30 a case of 12, so $2.50 each. The rest of our bottles we ordered a few days ago from the wholesaler, they will be arriving at the farm soon.

Asked the old guy how much syrup is being made at the moment, he said not much, but the farm accross the road that has 2000 taps on the go, had made 150 gallons. They got an earlier start on tapping than us, which isn't unusual as they are a commercial operation. We're just 4 dudes fucking around.

So on the counter he has a jar of maple lolipops for giveaways to customers. I take one and try it out. Nummy. How about sell me a bag of those dude? Sure he says...gimme a buck. :O Generous...but we've spent thousands there over the years for all our stainless steel pans, evaporators, bottler, bottles, whatever. So anyone gets candy from me, is getting a lolipop too.

Stopped in to a quaint little Menonite food store on Arthur St. in Elmira proper. Picked up a whack of fresh made maple candy...and some old fashioned maple walnut fudge. Whoa. On the way home I had one of the candies...sweet.
hb

mollyzmoon
03-22-2008, 04:00 PM
Somehow I missed this thread. Sweet Jesus, hockeybobby, you are quite the Canadiana junkie! I don't feel half as Canadian. All I can say is that I don't think I've ever dated a guy who didn't at SOME point play hockey.

I don't have maple stuff very often, but I really really love maple fudge. Oh man, it's amazing. When we went to all those maple farms for school trips, it was the highlight for sure. The snow taffy is okay, but it's more fun to watch than to eat I think. I really love the maple toffee and maple cookies too. But like I said, it's been a while. I usually only think of these things when I see the tourist shops in airports, or when I drive by a farm advertising the trees.

Maple leaves are deadly poisonous to horses. That non-sequitor is brought to y'all by my one track mind.

hockeybobby
03-22-2008, 04:22 PM
Somehow I missed this thread. Sweet Jesus, hockeybobby, you are quite the Canadiana junkie! I don't feel half as Canadian. All I can say is that I don't think I've ever dated a guy who didn't at SOME point play hockey.

I don't have maple stuff very often, but I really really love maple fudge. Oh man, it's amazing. When we went to all those maple farms for school trips, it was the highlight for sure. The snow taffy is okay, but it's more fun to watch than to eat I think. I really love the maple toffee and maple cookies too. But like I said, it's been a while. I usually only think of these things when I see the tourist shops in airports, or when I drive by a farm advertising the trees.

Maple leaves are deadly poisonous to horses. That non-sequitor is brought to y'all by my one track mind.

Hey molly...yeah it's pretty tough to find a guy up here that hasn't played organized hockey at some point. It'd probably make a good discussion, but I think it makes us good team guys, yanno? Take a look at that little thread Bob started too...something like "periodic table for the hockeybobby". good laughs.

I see you are trading maple sugar candy for American ciggys. haha. Reminds me of US troops trading their marlboros for whatever in wartime since they are so revered (cigs) elsewhere.

As for me being a Canadiana junkie...I guess so. We are lucky we are in Ontario where the sugarmaple trees grow. Here and Quebec we are blessed to be able to drill a hole, hammer in a spile, hang a bucket and get free maple sugar water. And we can boil the shit out of it and get all kinds of cool shit.
If we were out East, we'd be pros on seafood...lobsters and scallops and stuff. Out West, we'd be what? Making Oil lol, making smoked salmon...whatever. Every country has it's uniqueness. I love Canada, and I bet you do too.
Thanks for poking your head in here molly ;)

AznExtasy
03-22-2008, 05:04 PM
My father took a contract job in Vermont for half a year awhile ago and he would bring back all kinds of maple syrup stuff and foods from that region. There was maple butter, sweet mustard, cheese log, salami, and all kinds of gourmet foods from there. I didn't know how to eat the maple syrup though, I don't really eat pancakes or anything. I think I just mixed it in with all kinds of Chinese food in a crazy stoned stupor.

LuckyOne
03-22-2008, 06:01 PM
I have a funny story about maple syrup at party back when I used to do 2 girl shows. Somebody got the bright idea to use maple syrup when we ran out of whipped cream. :O
True story! It was SO sticky. The clerk at the bank was pissed as hell when I brought in dollar bills soaked in maple syrup.

Bob_Loblaw
03-22-2008, 06:04 PM
I think I just mixed it in with all kinds of Chinese food in a crazy stoned stupor.
I think I'm going to have to try this. The maple syrup on Chinese food part, not the crazy stoned stupor part. ...or should I?


It was SO sticky. The clerk at the bank was pissed as hell when I brought in dollar bills soaked in maple syrup.
I'd be too chicken to make a deposit with the clerk. I'd go straight to the ATM


Hey hb, are you only taking orders for maple candy or are you pushing syrup too?

OdysseusNJ
03-22-2008, 06:09 PM
HB dude sometimes I read your posts and it makes me want to buy a cabin in some huge expanse of Canadian forest or something.

Also makes me miss playing hockey.

hockeybobby
03-22-2008, 06:23 PM
My father took a contract job in Vermont for half a year awhile ago and he would bring back all kinds of maple syrup stuff and foods from that region. There was maple butter, sweet mustard, cheese log, salami, and all kinds of gourmet foods from there. I didn't know how to eat the maple syrup though, I don't really eat pancakes or anything. I think I just mixed it in with all kinds of Chinese food in a crazy stoned stupor.

Interesting, a Vermont dude invented a better evaporator for boiling sap back in 1872...here's the History of Maple Syrup (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/about/laws-policy/safe-third.asp)
There are so many ways to use the stuff, it's essentially a maple flavoured sugar sauce. Sweetening your coffee, or flavouring some meat/fish, as a sweet sauce on french toast (freedom toast haha). Here are a bunch of recipes in case you ever feel energetic in a maplesyrupy way: Recipes (http://www.ontariomaplesyrup.com/book3.html)
Crazy stoned stupor is good too!! :D


I have a funny story about maple syrup at party back when I used to do 2 girl shows. Somebody got the bright idea to use maple syrup when we ran out of whipped cream. :O
True story! It was SO sticky. The clerk at the bank was pissed as hell when I brought in dollar bills soaked in maple syrup.

Now you're talkin'. This is the highest, best use of maple syrup I've heard yet. You've made my day Lucky ;D
hb

Susan Wayward
03-22-2008, 07:22 PM
The clerk at the bank was pissed as hell when I brought in dollar bills soaked in maple syrup.

You have to toss that shit in a lingerie bag and run it through the wash before you take it to the bank.

LuckyOne
03-22-2008, 07:23 PM
^^^ Brilliant.

StrawberrySwitchblade
03-22-2008, 07:42 PM
Ohh..I used to go to the Maple Syrup festival every year back home in Pa.
They had the BEST breakfast ever! You woke up at a god awful hour like 5 am to stand in line for 3 more hours to get in for breakfast of pancakes and sausage, with fresh from the tree maple syrup. sooo goood. Then walked around and did festival things like watch them tap trees, and they had crafts and stuff.

I just gotta say though....the best way to use maple syrup is over vanilla ice cream.

Pfft, I got in for free before the line even started.

Though to be honest, I was one of the scouts that helped run the damn thing. I don't think that counts...

hockeybobby
03-22-2008, 07:52 PM
Pfft, I got in for free before the line even started.

Though to be honest, I was one of the scouts that helped run the damn thing. I don't think that counts...

You were a scout? Up here I think it's Girl Guides is the equivalent...or Brownies. I was a cub, and a scout, and a venture. Do a good deed every day, and BE PREPARED...yesiree.

I have fond memories of winter carnivals at the mill pond of my hometown (Richmond Hill, Ont.). Pancake breakfast, and the ice sculptures, and skating on the big pond with all the barrel bonfires around the edge. And the bad, highschool bands playing in the bandshell trying to keep their hands warm to play their guitars....good times.

StrawberrySwitchblade
03-22-2008, 08:31 PM
Yeah, I was...am...a scout. Lifetime member with Gold Award (think Eagle Scout). I was a professional overachiever. The scouts, both the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts, helped run the Maple Syrup Festival. It sucked ass, but they promised you pancakes at the end. Those pancakes were enough to rationalize being run like a dog for hours.

hockeybobby
03-22-2008, 08:56 PM
Yeah, what am I thinking...it's all the same in both our countries, and all the Brittish commonwealth countries too. Wow, you are serious about scouting. That's cool. I'm sure we could swap lots of stories...my best buddy was a Rover. One of us should start a thread and see who's been involved in Scouts....and share stories. :)

hockeybobby
03-30-2008, 04:32 PM
Just a little update:

Today we cooked up our first run of Maple Syrup for the season. Two of the three other guys involved in it with me did all the gathering of sap yesterday. They managed to accumulate 500 liters of sap. Worth noting, every pail or tote they emptied contained a significant hunk of ice.

When the sap sits in the pails at the trees, if it's cold enough, it freezes, but not solidly. The water freezes, leaving a much concentrated sugar/water mix. It makes it a bit of a pain in the ass for gathering/collecting, but it drastically cuts down boiling time.

Remember I mentioned that typically it takes 35 liters of sap to produce, after boiling and reduction, 1 liter of syrup? Well, we managed to get 47 liters of finished Canada Grade #1 Light syrup out of 500 liters of the raw sap. That's a ratio of around 10 to 1. Boiling it all up to the finished product took only 4 1/2 hours. That's what freezing did for us.

It's all bottled up in our new half liter clear bottles with the little jug handle, and a couple of boxes of gifty Leaf bottles. Tomorrow, I'll be distributing most of them. Some of them are staying right here though. ;)

fancygirl
03-30-2008, 09:03 PM
So anyone gets candy from me, is getting a lolipop too.

Stopped in to a quaint little Menonite food store on Arthur St. in Elmira proper. Picked up a whack of fresh made maple candy...and some old fashioned maple walnut fudge. Whoa. On the way home I had one of the candies...sweet.
hb

woo hoo! go hockey bobby! that's a bummer the season isn't shaping up how you wanted it to :(

hockeybobby
03-31-2008, 05:48 PM
woo hoo! go hockey bobby! that's a bummer the season isn't shaping up how you wanted it to :(

Thanks fancy!
There'll be enough to go around. I just read an article yesterday that Quebec has had two poor (quantity) seasons in a row, and are fearing a third. They are predicting significant price increases as they think this will be a continuing trend. Quebec provides 75% of the world's maple syrup. Ontario does another 5% (Canada produces 80%). The other 20% comes from the US northeastern states.

I already have enough for the coming year for myself, and a goodly amount for gifts. Friends and family always get the best stuff first. Then we sell whatever we can for next year's needs, and charity.

The next two weeks will be crazy I think. :)

fancygirl
03-31-2008, 05:50 PM
^ you gonna join the gift exchange so you can put all those maple products to good use?

hockeybobby
03-31-2008, 05:56 PM
^ you gonna join the gift exchange so you can put all those maple products to good use?

Giving the stuff away is the funnest part ;D

hockeybobby
04-02-2008, 10:57 PM
Second batch made today and bottled. 56 liters today. The boil began around 10 this morning (I didn't get there til noon, like the diva executive chef that I am) and the finished syrup came off the firebox at 9:30. We started with 1300 liters of raw sap.

My back is damn sore from too much standing over the finishing pan. I'm exhausted physically, but alert mentally. So here I am on SW :D

princessjefflina
04-02-2008, 11:40 PM
i prefer honey
:(

hockeybobby
04-02-2008, 11:48 PM
WRONG !! That stuff can KILL YOU.

Just kidding...I like honey too. :)

princessjefflina
04-03-2008, 12:44 AM
i think its supercool youre all like tapping the trees yourself ytho!
but i usually use honey on mah pancakes!
i also prefer to make them with water than milk
:(

hockeybobby
04-03-2008, 12:57 AM
Honey on pancakes sounds yummy. It's kind of the same thing eh? Trees or Bees...pick yer poison. haha.

Hey Princess! NO MORE SAD FACES IN MY THREAD !!

:) = Allowed.

princessjefflina
04-03-2008, 12:59 AM
:( = :)
generally speaking for me

hockeybobby
04-03-2008, 01:06 AM
:( = :)
generally speaking for me

haha...that's funny :( :(

hockeybobby
04-12-2008, 07:52 AM
Heading out to boil up a batch today. The sugarshack got a surprise visit from an inspector (Ont. gov.) Tuesday. He tested a sample from all of our batches to date for sugar content. All passed with flying colours.

For farm-gate operations like ours, there are few rules. One of the things you can't do is pass off water as maple syrup. Ours tested out at 66.9% which is right where we want it.

I'm raffling off a maple basket this week to benefit the food bank. It has a few different bottles of my syrup and some assorted other maple products I picked up at a commercial sugar bush operation...candy, maple jelly, maple sugar, maple tea...etc. I'll post the amount I'm able to raise from this.

hockeybobby
04-16-2008, 04:50 PM
Left yesterday (tuesday) at 11am, and I'm just getting back now 7pm. It's looking like this is the final run of sap. You can tell it's nearing the end when you catch a faint whiff of what smells like woody glue when you start the boil. The sap is changing.

We have just a ton of sap right now to be boiled. As the weather gets warmer, it becomes a race against time to get it boiled up before it spoils. We have a half a dozen barrells buried under snow we scooped up with the tractor, to give us a little more time. We also have two thousand liter tanks full.

My feet are sore. Yesterday and today the routine is: couple of logs in the firebox, go get a couple more from the pile, skim the finishing pan, check the inflow valve, check the sap level in the evaporator....repeat a million times.
Got two batches of amber syrup done after my overnighter. That put us over last years yield...307 liters and counting.

Off to hockey.

LuckyOne
04-16-2008, 05:30 PM
i prefer honey
:(

WRONG !! That stuff can KILL YOU.

Just kidding...I like honey too. :)

LoLz!

kitty260
04-17-2008, 11:21 AM
Oh my gosh, I completely missed this thread! I feel so unprivileged to have grown up in the North where there were maple trees but no maple syrup. Now I'm in Winnipeg where there's cows and wheat and...not much else.

Yay! A Canada thread! Wish I could buy some of your syrup but I guess I'll have to make do with Hutturite honey instead.

hockeybobby
04-17-2008, 05:57 PM
Yay! A Canada thread! Wish I could buy some of your syrup but I guess I'll have to make do with Hutturite honey instead.

That honey can kill you...see previous posts. lol. I heard today that you can get a liter of pure maple syrup at costco (or price club) for $10. This is an incredible deal. A menonite selling at roadside on my way up to the sugarshack wanted $14 for a 1/2 liter.

Raised $200 from my maple basket raffle to benefit the foodbank. This will allow them to acquire $2000 worth of food.

ajbaer
04-17-2008, 07:15 PM
I'll come help boil your sap ;)

hockeybobby
04-17-2008, 07:39 PM
I'll come help boil your sap ;)

YEAH BABY!! *said in the manner of Austin Powers* ;D

hockeybobby
04-18-2008, 03:48 PM
I think I made strip club history today. I tipped a girl at the stage with a half liter Kent bottle of amber maple syrup.

AznExtasy
04-18-2008, 04:00 PM
I've been tipped with weirder, more useless shit before.

hockeybobby
04-18-2008, 05:28 PM
I've been tipped with weirder, more useless shit before.

Please start a thread about this in the Lounge Azn. I bet there are others who've been tipped weird shit. It could be good laughs.

LEIGH_LANDON
04-18-2008, 09:24 PM
This is the first time ever I read a four page thread in its entirety - ever.

Being a maple syrup loving canuck, is it any wonder?

I drizzle it over vanilla ice cream and toss on big chunks of walnuts.

Eggos, pancakes, and when I make beans, soak navy beans overnight, get em boiling in the morning dump in loads of maple syrup and a bit of brown sugar, some folks add a touch of tomatoe paste or ketchup - just a dash mind you, slice up chunks of real ham the "on the bone" ham not pkged or any other kind, not roll not ANY kind but on the bone ham that you baked in the oven WITH maple syrup -------------boil until the sauce thickens down, and eat and toot your delicious maple beans!!!

hockeybobby
04-18-2008, 09:44 PM
This is the first time ever I read a four page thread in its entirety - ever.

Being a maple syrup loving canuck, is it any wonder?

I drizzle it over vanilla ice cream and toss on big chunks of walnuts.

Eggos, pancakes, and when I make beans, soak navy beans overnight, get em boiling in the morning dump in loads of maple syrup and a bit of brown sugar, some folks add a touch of tomatoe paste or ketchup - just a dash mind you, slice up chunks of real ham the "on the bone" ham not pkged or any other kind, not roll not ANY kind but on the bone ham that you baked in the oven WITH maple syrup -------------boil until the sauce thickens down, and eat and toot your delicious maple beans!!!

I do this too, but I put it all on a toasted eggo with a bunch of syrup in the bottom of the bowl as well. It's so awesome.

The only thing I do different with my beans is I put ALOT of onions in, like a couple of big ones in. I sometimes throw a little bbq sauce in as well, or even a can of tomatoes. Having some leftover honeyham to go in is great, I've also just cut up some smoked bacon. The key part is the soaking of the beans though. Without that it's a surefire gaseous fiasco.

Thank you for poking your head in Leigh.

In about 8 hours, we are starting our final boil of the season.

hockeybobby
04-19-2008, 09:24 PM
Oh man. I left this morning at 8:30am and I'm just getting in now, and i'm exhausted. It was time for the final boil today...last batch of the season. We know it is over because the sap we collected is cloudy (a key indicator), and the frogs are singing. I heard them coming from the marsh near the sideroad as I stood outside the sugarshack tonight.

It was an interesting day. It was a sunny, beautiful day, and people were out and about. We had several cars come up the lane looking for maple syrup after seeing our sign at the road. They all want a little tour too, which is fun. Obviously we made a few sales as well.

We are in good shape financially as we paid off our equipment and bottle purchases, and we have nearly a thousand dollars in the cookie tin, with a bunch of inventory going forward. We have a great set-up now, and bottles for next year stored away. We made just over 400 liters this season. Not great, we hoped for 500, but not bad...enough.

All that remains now is to gather up all of our spiles (taps), lines, and pails, wash everything (a 2 day, 4 man job), and store it in the sugarshack. I have syrup for myself for the year, and plenty to give away as gifts, and a little money was raised for the foodbank. A successful season.

That's it for this thread. Thanks to everyone who commented.

hockeybobby
03-30-2009, 10:53 AM
/bump for 2009 updates.

It's maple syrup time again here in southern Ontario, Quebec, and the north-eastern states. For about 6 to 8 weeks, for people who make the syrup, like myself and my three partners, it's like winter is over as soon as the first tap goes in the tree. Ahhhh.

I was at the farm yesterday boiling up two batches, and during a break in the action (hehe, slow motion action) we were talking about how much our operation has changed and evolved over the last five years. Our equipment is so much better, as are our methods and processes. Each year of making syrup saw one or two significant changes or upgrades. We work easier and smarter now, and enjoy it even more if that's possible.

Anyway, my avatar is a representation of our main bottle in use now. It's a half Liter "Kent" bottle we buy in cases of 12 from the mennonite supplier. Currently we don't use any label, though we've been thinking about doing this one final thing to be fully compliant with all regulations for syrup manufacturers. It was only last year that we switched to brand new bottles, after going for years with recycled whiskey and grolsch flip-top beer bottles lol.

I'll post a few things between now and the end of the season (some time in April) about what goes on at the sugarshack, or the process of making maple syrup. Post any questions you have about anything related to maple syrup and I'll try to answer them.

Now go have some pancakes, and be sure to use 100% pure maple syrup.

http://www.metrocouncil.org/Directions/parks/parks2008/MapleSyrupPancakes.jpg

Dirty Ernie
03-30-2009, 10:37 PM
Hey HB, how's it running? I read an article recently that maple syrup prices here in the States were at a record high. Is this the case also up north?