Strawberry Topped Angel Food Cake #WordlessWednesday

Our local strawberry season is winding up where I live in New York State.  I wouldn't be surprised if our heat wave (97F today, 36C) hastens that.  I can't complain - that privilege is reserved for those in our Pacific Northwest. They've been struggling with temperatures upwards of 117F (47C) recently.

So today, I wanted to feature something cool and refreshing.

Because I'm a Weight Watchers lifetime member, I try to stay away from fattening desserts.  This one is so simple and you can modify it however you want.

This is all you need:  slices of angel food cake (I made mine using a cake mix, right before the heat hit), sliced strawberries, and some whipped cream  (I use aerosol light whipped cream.). So simple, and no cooking needed.  Of course, you can use shortcake if you want. 

Take the slice of angel food cake. Heap sliced strawberries on it. (I don't sweeten them in any way).  Top with aerosol (or homemade) whipped cream.

If you want an easy Canada Day (tomorrow) dessert, I could easily see a drizzle of maple syrup on this.  If you want something for the United States' Independence Day (July 4) one could add a simple blueberry sauce, which we use for breakfast on the weekend: frozen blueberries, a little liquid, cooked briefly with some real maple syrup.  It's so good, and you could drizzle it over the cake and strawberries before you add the whipped cream. 

 

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

Maple Sweetness #WordlessWednesday

It's maple syrup season where I live in the Southern Tier of New York State.   

Later today, I hope to be going to a sugar house to buy some maple syrup.  The syrup I like is what we call dark amber - it is darker and full of more flavor than what you can buy in the supermarkets.

These are a couple of pictures I took several years ago.  Today, it's supposed to get near 60 degrees (15.6 degrees Celsius) so there may not be any snow.

As you may be aware, maple syrup is made from the sap of the sugar maple tree, which is collected and transported to a sugar house for boiling into syrup.  The "raw" sap doesn't have much of a taste.  Native Americans, years ago, figured out if you condensed the sap, you got yourself a sweet treat.

This is a local sugarhouse.

This sugarhouse, at least in 2013, was still using a wood fired evaporator.   The boiled down syrup has a special flavor if wood is used.

I can't wait for this afternoon.  There won't be any samples this year, I'm sure, due to COVID-19, but I already know what it will taste like.  It will taste like the end of winter.  Sweet.

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

Will We Go to the Dark Side this Year?

I read this on one of our local news websites today:  "Climatologically, Binghamton (New York) hits 50 degrees for the first time each year around January 27th but it has yet to do so this year."

Yes, tell us about it.

But spring is progressing, if you can call being able to see bare ground in some places for the first time since December "progress".

Last month, this was our front yard.  Looks kind of nice in the early morning light.

I know, underneath all that snow lie crocuses, hyacinths, grape hyacinths, tulips, and daffodils, just waiting for the secret signal Nature gives.

I also know that March can sneak in a few snowstorms.  One of our worst since I've lived here was March 13, 1993.

So winter isn't over just yet.

But the birds are singing (no robins yet) and I see tree buds starting to swell. 

And, best of all, it's Maple syrup season.  I wonder, though, if we are going to be able to have a maple festival this year.  They are trying.   Our Maple Weekends (when you can visit producers and see maple syruping in action) are in some doubt but they are also trying.  The official weekend is cancelled but local producers can choose, and we have retail sales available in the two local sites I know of (local meaning 30 miles from Binghamton or less.)

Our local syrup producer started to boil on February 27.  The sap is running.

Oh, those sweet memories of dark maple syrup.  Not the stuff you get in supermarkets, but oh so good.  Well, better than the supermarket type, especially if you have people who boil sap using wood.

Going to the dark side with others may have to wait until next year but we will still have local syrup.

Sweet!

Going To the Dark Side (Of Maple Syrup)

I first blogged this in 2014 and repeating (with some updates) because maple syrup season is here.

Maple Weekend is coming to upstate New York - this weekend and next weekend.

I am fortunate to live in maple syrup country, because, for me, nothing else will ever touch my pancakes.  Of all maple syrup, I think the best is that produced using wood fired evaporators.  They give a special taste that just can't be duplicated.

We still have at least one producer who makes syrup that way.

Making maple syrup is an art.  There is a brief period of time at the end of winter when maple trees start to wake from their winter hibernation. Sap, clear and not very sweet at all, starts to flow.  The days must be above freezing and, preferably, sunny.  The nights must be below freezing.  These conditions produce a push-pull condition in the trees, causing the sap to flow.  Producers tap the trees, attach a bucket (involving judgement as to how many taps a tree can support) and collect the sap through tubes that lead to the processing house.

Some people drink the sap for health reasons.  I've sampled it and it isn't much different from water.  The magic comes later, after the evaporation process.  And, it's quite a process, with 40 parts of maple sap needed for one part of maple syrup.  That's a lot of sap, and a lot of heat source needed.  And all of that takes money and a continued investment on the part of the maple syrup producer.

The season lasts about 4-6 weeks.  When the trees start to bud, or temperatures remain above freezing, the sap turns bitter and the season is over.

At the beginning of the season, the sap produces a light syrup which is the most expensive to buy. Toward the end of the season, you get darker syrup.  In our part of upstate New York, we prefer the darker syrup for our pancakes.  In maple syrup, you want to go to the dark side.

I took these pictures in 2014 at Bush's Syrup House in Harpersville, New York (Travel tip:  it's not that far from where April the Giraffe lives at Animal Adventure - too bad Animal Adventure doesn't open until May.)  The day I visited in 2014, Bush's was producing dark syrup but it wasn't yet bottled or available for sale.

This is the barn with the evaporator.

The wood fired evaporator.

The syrup tank.

A display of maple candy molds and old fashioned taps (some dating from the 1700's).

After our look around, we walked into the sugar house to buy some syrup.  You may blanch at the price maple syrup goes for.  But, consider the amount of work that goes into the production of maple syrup.

Can you make maple syrup at home, as one of my wonderful readers wondered the other day?  Yes! (if you have the right kind of trees, that is.)  I worked with someone, years ago, whose husband  made syrup and, one year, offered it to sale. He totally sold out to his wife's co workers, including me.  I've never had better syrup before or since.  Just don't try the boiling in your kitchen - you will ruin your wallpaper.

With more people interested in natural sweeteners, more people may, despite the cost, be searching for real maple syrup.

If you are, why not consider New York State syrup?