Cherry Pie

Posted on by Jessica Boone

 

Bright red fresh tart cherries + maple sugar = yummy cherry pie!

My cherry trees produced really well this year so I wanted to enjoy the bounty.  I love the contrast of tart cherries and maple sugar.  I don’t have a cherry pitter so I used a chop stick to remove the pits (although another year I may invest in a manual pitter).  I use maple sugar in my pies – you substitute 1:1 white to maple in any recipe you use.  The tart cherries are balanced by the sweet maple sugar.

 

 

For 9-inch Two Crust Pastry

 

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup shortening
  • 6-7 Tablespoons ice cold water

Combine the flour and salt. Cut in the shortening using a pastry blender or food processor on “pulse.”Combine lightly until the mixture resembles course meal or really tiny peas.Sprinkle water over the mixture 1 Tbsp at a time and mix lightly with a fork or your hands.(If you used a food processor, transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl before adding the water.)

Cherry Filling

  • 2 cups Fresh cherries – pitted
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 cup Maple Sugar
  • 2 tablespoons tapioca
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
In a saucepan combine all the listed ingredients except butter. Stir gently. Bring to a boil and cook 3-5 minutes or until it begins to thicken. Prepare pie crust first and place bottom pastry in pie dish.  Pour in filling, dot with butter and add top crust. Crimp the edges.  Cut slits in crust.  Bake at 425* for 45 mins or until filling bubbles and crust is lightly browned.

   Best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream sprinkled with maple sugar

Committed to Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Posted on by Jessica Boone

We are a Carbon Offset Farm!

It’s official – we are committed to reducing carbon dioxide emissions as a Carbon Offset Farm! What does this mean?  It means that we have made a commitment to our forest to maximize the amount of carbon offset our trees can produce.  Hi Vue Maples has joined a partnership with fellow landowners in the Cold Hollow Mountains of Vermont to preserve our forest and farm land as a collective whole to reduce and store carbon dioxide emissions (Green House Gases) caused in other parts of the country and world.

We do this by “sequestering” (capturing and storing) greenhouse gases with our trees and crop land.  The healthier forest we have – the more carbon is stored.  Trees store carbon by photosynthesis – they take carbon from the atmosphere and convert it into carbon based sugars to fuel their tissues.

Stewardship

What’s a healthy forest and why do we qualify? Stewardship – my family has taken care of our farm for generations.  Our goal throughout the years has been to create quality maple syrup while taking care of the land.

How we take care of the land
  •  encouraging as many varieties of trees as possible
  • watching for invasive species
  • selectively cutting trees for logs and firewood
  • maintaining wildlife habitats

Our farm covers 400 plus acres – 200 of which is our maple sugar bush.  The remaining 200 consist of fields used for agriculture purpose and multi-use forest.  We have created high quality bird habitat in this area to increase our migratory songbird habitat.  These steps that began a 100 plus years ago has allowed us to transition to a carbon offset farm with no major changes, just a deep rooted future commitment to keeping our farm as healthy as possible to help the world reach the goal of net zero.

Partnerships

This project was the undertaking of the local conservation group Cold Hollow to Canada (CHC) – who’s goal is to preserve 23,000 acres in the Cold Hollow Mountain Range by 2030.  Programs such as  carbon offset are some of the ways CHC can help landowners preserve the forested lands in our area.  Preserving the Cold Hollow region supports wildlife corridors, critical bird habitat and supports rural communities.  The Vermont Land Trust (VLT) has partnered and been instrumental in creating this Carbon Offset Program.