Category Archives: maple syrup

The Great Veggie Experiment: Parsnips!

At the farmer’s market, we purchased some parsnips.  They look kind of like carrots, only more pale.  Actually, they are related to carrots, so that makes sense.  It is considered a winter vegetable because it actually needs to have some frost temperatures to fully develop the roots.  So it’s season is winter time and early spring.

Parsnips are often substituted for potatoes when they aren’t available.

Parsnips are rich in potassium and fiber!  Our first attempt at cooking was just simple pan sauteeing in coconut oil.  I was really pleased at how tasty the parsnips are!  They have a texture like a really firm potato and taste kind of like carrot, but not as sweet.  I also noted both times we cooked these that they caramelize really easily (ie burn).

We made this recipe last night:

Maple glazed parsnips:

  • 2 cups of chopped parsnips (2 or 3 medium size ones)
  • 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
  • 1.5 teaspoons of butter
  • 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts or pecans

You can either roast the parsnips in a 400 degree oven on a sprayed cookie sheet for 20-30 minutes, or you can pan saute with cooking spray.  Either way will do to cook the parsnips.

In a small fry pan, toast the walnuts until golden brown.  Add the butter and the maple syrup and stir to combine.  Mix with the parsnips and serve.  Serves 2 to 3.  Easy and really tasty!

GVE = success this time!  I am keeping parsnips in the rotation.

Maple syrup making!

Hey everybody!  I actually slept in until 7:30 today.  Confession that we went out to Friendly’s for ice cream last night.  It was really good, and I guess that carb load helped me at the gym this morning.  I got on the treadmill and did 4 miles that were really easy!  Love it when that happens.  Came home and had some yummy custard oats topped with Naturally Nutty and jam.

So good.  I love how oats feel in my tummy after a work out. 😀

Then we took my mother out to a maple syrup farm!  We are lucky to live in maple syrup country.  It takes a while to get to the farms, as there are no direct routes, though.  Nice drive, though.  We stopped at the Dry Brook Sugar House:

This is a working farm with dairy animals, too:

They just have their heads through these bars to eat the hay outside below this photo- so don’t worry about them, they can put their heads in and out on their own.

First stop in the sugar house was a pancake lunch:

Yum!  Topped with syrup that was warm from the evaporator:

So good!!!  Then we took a horse wagon out for a short ride:

We just went a little bit into the sugar bush.  Interesting thing is that it crossed over into Vermont!

These are the tap lines on the trees:

Each little blue feeder line goes into the big blue one, which runs into a large collector.  It’s mostly gravity fed, but that black tube is a vacuum to help it along if needed.  The collecting season is very short, about 6 weeks – and that will give you the entire year’s production!  The perfect weather is days above freezing and nights below freezing.  Once the trees bud out, then the sap becomes too bitter to use.

The sap is then boiled down in the evaporator:

Did you know that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make just 1 gallon of syrup?  This stuff is like gold!

All that water boiling away makes a lot of steam:

Lucky us, we also saw them making maple cream, which is a soft spread maple syrup (and to die for):

This is the same process as making the maple sugar candies, but the temperature is lower.  They weren’t making candies, but here are the little leaf molds:

Very cool process and amazing to me that a whole year’s supply is dependent upon the weather!

Next week I will be doing a giveaway of some dark amber syrup we bought here to some lucky reader!  Make sure you check back 😀

Question: Have you ever had real maple syrup?

Banana Maple Nut Pancakes

Okay I had to share this topping and give it a post all its own – it was that good!

You can use any pancakes for this, as the topping is the star of the show:

cakes1

Banana Maple topping:

  • 1 small ripe banana
  • 1 tablespoon real maple syrup
  • 9 grams of walnuts (toasted is best!)

In a bowl, mash the banana really well with a fork until it is completely liquid. Mix in the maple syrup and heat in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds just to warm up.  Put onto pancakes and sprinkle with the walnuts.  This is sooooo good!  The riper the banana, the more sauce-like the consistency will be (and sweeter).

Serves 1 – Calories approx 160

This would be awesome on french toast, probably even a bagel.  I love real maple syrup, but it is so calorie dense and just a couple tablespoons is never enough for me, so this is a great way to stretch it out with enough topping for pancakes to satisfy me.

Fun tip:  Did you know that you can toast nuts in the microwave? Just put them on a paper towel and zap in 30 second intervals until they are the toastiness that you like.  These walnuts took a little over a minute and had come out of the fridge.

And can you believe there were no blueberries on my pancakes???