I don't like syrup. I like my pancakes, waffles and french toast uncomplicated by sweetness, unless it's in the form of a ripe red strawberry.
Even thought I'm not personally fond of it, I do have a soft spot in my heart for syrup, particularly the maple variety.
For me, syrup is synonymous with Laura Ingalls Wilder and the first of the Little House series that chronicle Wilder's life from childhood through marriage and motherhood. As a little girl myself, I remember listening to my mother read me "Little House in the Big Woods" and being envious of young Laura's adventures in Wisconsin. Her descriptive narrative let me into a pioneer's world, including, of course, the winter ritual of maple syrup season.
After reading the book I remember examining the trees around our house and wondering how the sticky substance dripping out of the bark could possibly be transformed into something people would want to eat. Of course, growing up in Alaska, the trees I was looking at were mostly pine. Their sap isn't the syrup variety. We lived much too far north for maples.
In fact, volunteers at the Indian Creek Nature Center's annual maple syrup festival told me that Iowa is really about as far west and south as you can go and still find maples. Maples are more common in the northeast United States. Maple syrup season is a tradition there and the result, thick sweet syrup, is a delicacy. I discovered Saturday why pure maple syrup is so much more expensive than Aunt Jemina or any other typical pancake syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make just ONE gallon of syrup. There's also only a short window of time each year when the sap runs. Here in Iowa it's roughly four weeks. They start when days are above freezing and nights are below and they stop when the nights start staying above freezing.
Last year, the nature center harvested 2,000 gallons of sap, which they made into syrup for this year's festival. From the looks of it, they did a good job. Hundreds of pancakes were gobbled up Saturday morning at the festival.
Next week catch up with Molly at the Kirkwood Equestrian Center where she'll be talking to people about their scary or funny run-ins with horses.