       |
|
Spring, 2011 With the weather warming up, the snow melting, and with winter vacations over for both Bill and Sarah, all of our thoughts are on the upcoming maple syrup production season. Similar to all types of farming, maple syrup production is a bit of a gamble, as it's always the question of when to start tapping! Thankfully for the production season of year 2010, we took the early gamble and started to tap on February 27th. Before we knew it, we were boiling four days later on March 2nd and boiled for the next 17 out of 19 days. To say the least, the 2010 production season arrived early and came in strong as for almost three weeks the temperatures were ideal … 5ºC below 0 at night, and 5ºC above 0 during the day. It had been a long time since we had seen these ideal temperatures day, after day, after day. Due to tapping early, and having great staff, our 2010 season was very successful. Another success we would like to share with you is an award Cocomira (an Ontario company) received in August of 2010. We supply our Dark #3 maple syrup as well as our granulated maple sugar to Cocomira. Cocomira makes an amazing maple crunch (this product has been available in our store the past couple years) and decided to enter the product in the 2010 New York Specialty Food Show. In short, Cocomira's Maple Crunch is the proud recipient of a Sliver Finalist Award for Outstanding Confection. Congratulations Cocomira! If you haven't tasted the maple crunch yet, pick yourself up a box this spring … you will have died and gone to maple heaven! Another tasty treat we would like to share with you can be made in your own kitchen. This is a favourite of Sarah's husband who takes them to work and shares with the other tradesmen on the job site - apparently they taste better than Timmy's muffins! Rhubarb Maple Muffins
In small mixing bowl, blend maple syrup, sour cream, oil and egg. Set aside. In larger mixing bowl, stir together flour, rhubarb, sugar, baking soda and salt. Stir in sour cream mixture just until moistened. Drop by tablespoonful into 12 greased muffin cups. Topping: In small bowl, combine maple syrup, nuts, cinnamon and butter. Spoon a little topping on each muffin. Bake at 350 ºF for 25 to 30 minutes. Enjoy! For our upcoming 17th year of producing maple syrup, Bill has been working in the bush installing more pipeline and drop lines as well as replacing all spiles with a new and improved spile. According to the reports, this new spile increases sap production. Besides being excited to start boiling again, we are looking forward to seeing familiar faces again walking into the sugar house as well as welcoming new faces to see our operation. Happy 'Sweet' Spring!
|
41 Leacock Road, RR 1
Frankville, Ontario
K0E 1H0
For more information:
Tel: 613-275-2893
Toll Free 1-877-440-7887
email: mail@gibbonsmaple.com
