Big Cedar Lake, WI- Take the time to stop and smell the sweet aroma of maple syrup-making and dream of emerging spring and cinnamon waffles.
The biggest ritual of spring here at the Farmhouse: making maple syrup. This has been a family tradition since my great-grandparents arrived on this land in 1884 and it is one, we continue in a rather primitive fashion that produces just enough of this sweet springtime gold for our family’s use.
Oh, what a glorious scent fills the house as we do the final finicky boiling of the big pots of syrup we’ll make this season. These we can cook in the kitchen – you’ll need to read on to see what happens when you try to do the whole process indoors.
We usually venture forth to tap our maples in early February, and we’re usually looking for a day of quiet weather that is not too cold. After all, we’re tapping only a few trees just for us and the process should be fun, not one that pits us against the mighty elements.
Circumstances and bitter cold have pushed the tree-tapping this year to the end of February; the sap buckets and spiles are staged in the back hall just waiting for a weekend like this one to be put in place for the drips of spring that are likely to start plopping into them in the upcoming days. If you need me later today, you’ll find me in the Farmhouse Woods.
Try those waffles with some real maple syrup – they are delicious.
I am writing with one eye on the maple-syrup-to-be that is boiling on the stove; the house is filled with the earthy, sweet, maple scent of springtime, even as it’s mid-February on the calendar. We tapped the old maple trees in the Century Farmhouse Woods two weekends ago and watched as spring gushed from the trees when the spiles went in with a hammer-tap or two.
The sap seemed to be flowing much earlier than usual, and we’re seeing evidence of an early spring in other places too. In fact, the Sandhill cranes are back with their raucous, prehistoric-sounding calls echoing over the fields as we work between the woods and the house. It seems that nature has decided that spring has definitely come to Wisconsin.
The year is beginning and the cold world around us is waking up bit by bit.
Three more degrees on that candy thermometer and the first syrup of the season will be ready.
We tapped some of those same grandmother trees when I was growing up on the farm a hundred-gazillion years ago, and my mother tapped some of them too, when she was young.
I imagine that my grandfather and his siblings made forays to the woods in the same way, because my mother showed me where the sap was boiled all those years ago in one of our old outbuildings.
It’s a special thing to have the sense that our family roots run deep on this land. The house and land surrounding it have been lived in by five generations of my family; we are just the stewards of this corner of the world for now.
Two more degrees left to go on the thermometer, and it’s done. Careful vigilance is important at this point.
Every year the first jar of syrup is walked up the hill to my mother’s house – she deserves the first taste of springtime, don’t you think? Even though my grandparents boiled the sap to syrup here on the farm when my mother was growing up, when she first tried her hand at it, she forgot about the tremendous amount of steam that the process produces and managed to steam the new wallpaper off the walls of our kitchen. Note: do not try this indoors…
Getting there…please excuse me while I stir the pot.
It’s a simple country pleasure to make maple syrup. For a few weeks our days are focused on the flowing sap and the rite of spring that brings a richness and sweetness to our everyday lives in more ways than one. We’ll savor that sweetness throughout the months ahead, but there is nothing like the feeling of hope that comes with the making of it every year.
We’ll celebrate the newest syrup with a feast of waffles or pancakes as we always do. Here’s one of my favorite waffle recipes that can also be made as pancakes. If you can get your hands on some real maple syrup to pour over them, these will really be a treat.
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Want to make those waffles? Read on:
These Cinnamon Springtime Waffles are so good – especially with real maple syrup.
Cinnamon Springtime Waffles
This recipe makes a family-sized batch – about 9-10 waffles, depending on the size of your waffle iron. Don’t worry if this is too big a batch for you, because the waffles freeze well, and the extras are perfect for middle of the week breakfasts. Just pop them in the toaster.
Want to make pancakes instead? This batter is easily used to make pancakes. See the *note below.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour – or your favorite gluten free flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
¼ – ½ tsp. salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk (add up to ¼ cup more if the batter seems really thick)
6 T. melted butter
1 t. vanilla or ½ tsp. almond extract
Serving suggestion: dust with powdered sugar, serve with real maple syrup, and butter if you choose.
Let’s make ’em:
1. In a medium/large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon, soda, and salt.
2. Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stovetop.
3. In a small bowl, separate each egg, one at a time, placing the whites in a medium-sized bowl and the yolks in the buttermilk. Whisk the egg and milk mixture, add the vanilla or almond extract, mix again and pour into the dry ingredients. Add the butter to the dry ingredients now too.
4. With a clean whisk, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form (about 2-3 minutes). You can use your mixer for this, but why make more clean-up work? It doesn’t take much effort to whip a few egg whites!
5. Gently fold the egg whites into the waffle batter a little at a time, taking care not to stir too much. You don’t want to lose the puffiness of the batter!
6. Bake the waffles according to your waffle iron’s instructions and serve immediately for a crispy waffle or keep them warm on a platter in a low oven and the waffles will be soft when serving.
* If you’d like to make pancakes, heat a coating of oil on the bottom of a cast iron skillet or griddle or whatever type of pan you make your pancakes in. You’re heating this on medium-high heat, of course. When the oil is hot, spoon the batter into the pan, making several pancakes and allow them to cook until the tops are dry-ish and have holes (batter bubbles that have popped) over much of their surface. Flip the pancakes and allow them to cook for a minute or two more until the bottoms are golden. Serve hot with syrup!
How to freeze your waffles:
This is a pretty big-batch recipe, so if you have waffles left after breakfast, you can freeze them for a weekday treat. Here’s how:
1. Place the waffles (or break them down into sections that will fit into your toaster) onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or waxed paper. Place in the freezer just until they are hard, perhaps an hour or so.
2. Remove from the freezer and quickly wrap in foil, placing a square of parchment between each waffle to keep them from sticking to each other. You can cut up the parchment they were frozen on to do this. Wrap them in a double layer of foil and place back into the freezer. Remove as many as you need and toast them for a quick waffle breakfast or a snack in the middle of the week. Toaster waffles also make great sandwiches; just use them as you would use bread. In our house, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are always better on a waffle!
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West Bend, WI – Spring is early this year: the warmer days and freezing nights and the urge to find the drill, clean the buckets, and get out into the woods to see if the sap is running had us doing just that. The music of spring was beginning in the woods and we were ready to go at the Century Farmhouse.
Spring was dripping from the trees as we gently tapped in the spiles with the kitchen hammer and placed the aluminum sap buckets on the hooks.
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Sap flowed cold and clear from each fresh hole we made in the maples growing in the south corner of the Century Farmhouse Woods.
On February 8 we tapped six of the 10 trees we are gathering sap from this year. The rest were tapped on Saturday the 11. We don’t make a lot of syrup, but what we make is special.
At Century Farmhouse, spring has arrived.
For the next four weeks or so we’ll check the buckets early in the morning, removing ice that forms overnight and hauling the sap to the Farmhouse to strain and cook until it is sticky and brown and finished.
The maple sap-to-syrup ratio is about 40:1. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of precious syrup, and over that almost-month we’ll finish about 3 gallons; just enough for ourselves and for gifts.
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My mother, who grew up in the Farmhouse and remembers making syrup in the building that also served as a coal and woodshed, and garage, and smokehouse, will get the first taste of the season. Then we’ll celebrate the sugar moon with pancakes smothered in fresh maple-y goodness.
