Maine Maple Sunday 2012

Today is Maine Maple Sunday which means that many of the sugar houses in Maine are open to visitors.  We crossed the Androscoggin River to the Thurston Family Farm in Peru.  One of Charlie's colleagues married into the amazing family whose farm supplies our CSA vegetables, eggs, and maple syrup.   It makes me smile all over to be a consumer of food from my neighborhood--and it makes me smile all over to eat anything with maple butter...............

In the '60's when I was kid, we lived in Western Massachusetts.  As maple syrup season got into full swing, my family would load up our blue dodge station wagon and drive into southern Vermont where the plump, sweet faced wives of maple farmers would ladle hot syrup over cold snow to serve to us--I loved the way the syrup thickened when it hit the cold snow--so yummy.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a young woman knowledgeable with the marketing of American-made snack foods internationally and she said that different flavors are used to reflect the preferences of consumers in different countries.  That led me to wonder what are uniquely American tastes?  I wonder if maple is one we keep to ourselves?  

Well, whether or not it is popular elsewhere, it is popular here in Northern New England and the air was heavy with it as the steam rose into the rafters of the sugar house and flew out to scent the chill afternoon.