North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Jim Fruth" <jfruth@tds.net>]

   I forgot to mention.................about boiling maple syrup all day 
and into the night.  The longer it cooks the blacker and stronger tasting it 
gets.  Nowadays, Maple Syrup is graded as Light Amber, Medium Amber, Dark 
Amber and Commercial Grade.  Alot of homemade syrup might be commercial 
grade.  Then, if you have a big pot over an open pot, the sugar is 
constantly burning at the top edge and the fly-ash is going up, over and 
into the syrup and it takes on a characteristic flavor that some would have 
no other way.
   Commercial grade is what the cereal et.al. companies buy as an additive. 
There is a cooking process that quadruples the maple flavor which is the 
reason why sugar syrup companies add it to their product.

   Remember those cartoons about coffee so strong that you have to cut it 
with a scissors?  Well, it is no joke when speaking about commercial grade 
maple syrup:  If you don't empty your sap buckets in a timely manner 
(especially during warmer weather) it is inhabited by a bacterium referred 
to as "Ropey bacteria."   If you get alot of it, especially prevalent near 
the end of the sap season, the syrup will become so stringy that it becomes 
difficult to pour.  This may sound like fiction but it is true.  Buyers of 
ropey/stringy syrup will usually buy it if the strings are 3' long or less. 
And the Food Industry buys it.
   I have often wondered why some people don't like the taste of Maple 
Syrup.  I stopped wondering when a woman came into our store with a jug of 
maple syrup that she wanted re-bottled into smaller containers.  She said 
that a relative from Back East sends her a jug of it every year.  It was a 
commercial grade; it was as black as tar and it smelled badly.  I tasted it 
and it was the most gad-awful slop I ever put into my mouth.  I gave her a 
half pint of my syrup informing her of what it is supposed to taste like.

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN  56472
For jams, jellies, syrups and more:
www.jellygal.com
1-877-265-6856 (Toll Free)
1-218-831-7018 (My Cell)