North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Jim Fruth" <jimfruth@charter.net>]

Steve Herje wrote:  "In my experience, the North American food that has 
gotten the strongest reaction from European visitors is maple syrup---they 
(with a few exceptions) consider it disgusting--gaggingly vile.  One might 
like to think that Aunt Jemimah were to blame, but I only use the real stuff 
and the reaction  has been the same."

   I had always wondered why some people think Maple syrup tastes 
disgusting until, one day, a woman came into the store with a half-gallon 
jug of "maple syrup."  She asked that I put the contents into smaller 
bottles adding that a relative from Maine sends her such a jug every year.
   As I began pouring it into pint bottles, I noticed that the syrup seemed 
black instead of the dark brown I know it should be.  So I tasted a bit from 
the end of my finger.............YUK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was gawd awful 
HORRIBLE(!), somewhat resembling the taste of gasoline, probably the 
fermented end-of-the-season slop that the cereal companies buy for cheap.  I 
made some of it once and was embarrassed to sell it to the corporate buyer.
   When I had finished with her request, I informed the woman or the 
quality of her relative's syrup and gave her a bottle of my syrup as an 
example of what maple syrup 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)