Baked Maple Apples

Posted on by Jessica Boone

2 large apples – I used Zestra, Cortlands or any good baking apple

1/4 cup Maple Sugar 

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon ( I used King Arthur Vietnamese Cinnamon)

1 Tablespoon Butter

Carefully remove the core but leave the bottom of the apple intact.  I used a knife to cut the top part out then a spoon to scoop the rest out.

Place apples in a baking dish.

Divide the butter in half and add to each apple.

Mix the Maple Sugar and cinnamon and split equally between the apples.

Bake at 350* for about 25 -35 mins or until the apples are soft all the way through.

Serve warm with  a slice of sharp cheese or vanilla ice cream! Yummy!

 

Woodlots and Birds

Posted on by Jessica Boone

We are a certified Bird Friendly Sugarbush with the Vermont Audubon Society. Our next project is a woodlot in the lower part of our property. We don’t tap this area because its heavily concentrated with softwoods. Most of it used to be pasture for cows when I was growing up. I would like to convert part of the area into agriculture – an apple orchard and possibly berries. Some of it may convert back to pasture as well.
I have taken 5 acres and will be working on a “patch cut” this year. A patch cut is to increase the habitat for native bird species and migratory birds as well as mammals. We will be removing 90% of the trees that are on this 5 acre piece. I am selectively choosing the trees that I want to keep – no most of them are NOT maple in this case! I have chosen several apple trees, a nice stand of white birch and another stand of old spruce. I’ve randomly picked a few younger trees – a cherry or two, but sometimes I’ve picked some huge gnarly old mishaped trees just because they spoke to me. I like trees with character.
In addition to those I also will leave some of the trees that are already dead and fallen and several trees that are either already dead or mostly dead but still standing – bugs love these trees which in turn means birds love them. Most of the trees that are cut will be used to heat my house next year. The branches and leftovers will be thrown in piles to create natural hiding and nesting places for the birds and creatures like bunny rabbits.
The point of cutting such a high percentage of trees is to encourage the undergrowth to flourish – this will be grasses that create seeds and berries to grow to feed the birds. Overall the hope is the patch cut will see an increase in the number and variety of birds in the area.
The woodlots program that created this patch cut idea also ties back into the Cold Hollow to Canada program that wants to create wildlife corridors. We are a tiny piece of the largest temperate forest in the world and are trying to help do our small piece to this big puzzle.
#birdfriendlymaple #coldhollowtocanada #audubon

mole cartoon

The Mole Family

Posted on by Jessica Boone

There are many great story tellers in the family – I am not one of them.  I can remember about 3 jokes – this is one of them and the last one shared with Grampa Hue – the master storyteller. April was here and signs of spring were finally showing.  The mole family was just…

Hurry Up and Wait

Posted on by Jessica Boone

Well Uncle Sam has nothing on Mother Nature and they both have taught me patience with the Hurry Up and Wait routine.  We hurried and tapped in January only to wait for the first run, now we’re waiting again for the freeze to let up. We haven’t boiled in about 2 weeks. Tomorrow into next week is finally looking good again.   Ideally we want temps to drop below freezing at night then warm during the day – but not too warm so the sap stays cold.  We also don’t want it to stay warm too many days in a row without freezing because the tree will start sending its energy – the sap- into it’s branches to begin making leaves and buds.  This happens at the end of the season and the syrup takes on a “buddy taste”  and we stop sugaring for the year.

Sap yield per tree ranges from 10 – 20 gallons of sap per tree – depending on age, condtion and season.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup (sugar content does factor in here).  So it can take 2-4 trees to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.  The sugar concentration of sap runs about 2% +/- we then run the raw sap through our Reverse Osmosis to increase the concentration to 12-16% sugar.  This “sweet” is then boiled until it reaches a Brix measurement of 66.9*which is a density measurement to make sure the syrup has the right consistency or viscosity ( the ability of a liquid being able to flow).  This gives the syrup the right texture and flavor concentration.

My father says “Sap is like Holy Water – you gotta boil the Hell out of it”

 

Resolutions18

Posted on by Jessica Boone

It’s that time of year again – we all have lots of good intentions but within a couple of months we slide back into old habits. I am as guilty as the next person. I’ve always been someone that loves lists – long term, seasonal, weekly, daily. Sometimes they worked mostly they made me frustrated.

As I think about the changes I want to make this year, I am also reflecting on what my goals were last year and how I did on those. Running – yeah not so much this year, which is frustrating so I am setting up new running goals this year. My big ambition is to do a 10 miler – my realistic goal is to do a 10k. That is achievable – 2 years ago after I committed to the Dandelion Run in May.     I spent the money on the entry fee and didn’t want to waste my money, therefore I made a habit of running after I finished work and before I came home. I have a love/hate feel for running – hate it while I’m on the 1st and 3rd mile ( they always seem to be the worst). Love it when I’m done and the next several days after because I still feel good. I learned that if I did it before coming home or as soon as I got home it happened.  If I came home, checked my email, made a few posts or basically became distracted by the million and one things that always need my attention IT DIDN’T HAPPEN.  I let this happen this whole last year.  I can see the why now I just need to fix it.  We’ll see how my training goes next summer if I make the 10 mile run in the fall.

Of course being me and always trying to put a lot on my plate I can’t just be happy with one thing soooo…….even though I walk a lot a lot at work but it doesn’t count as exercise so I also am “resolving” to add more then just running – I want to try Yoga for the first time, I would like to actually go kayaking more then once this year and I want to go on at least 3 hikes (other then working in my own sugarwoods).

This last year I didn’t have any goals for exercise and I wanted to concentrate on growing my website – this is where I cut myself some slack – I didn’t run much at all this last year and only 1 kayak trip and 2 days of hiking, but I definitely learned a lot about my website, marketing and creating products. Now this year I would like to find a little more balance. A few of my business resolutions include increasing Facebook and Instagram viewers – adding more video to show more of what we do! and bring 3 new products to my market. I have the ideas and recipes I want to use now I just need to finish the ideas with the right packaging and labeling.
The resolutions that I want to make but I know I won’t be as picture perfect as they are in my mind – the vegetable garden without weeds, the box beds moved and overflowing with herbs and flowers and the porch alive with plants! I probably won’t get the porch repainted either.
So there’s my type of resolutions – personal, business and dream world. I have made inprovements over the last year and achieved at least partial success on my 2017 resolutions, now to just keep the momentum going and help it along by adding back in some needed exercise / me time!