Tis The Season For Maple Sugaring
Plus: Enter to win Maple Syrup from Mohawk Valley Trading Company
photo courtesy of Spring Mountain Living
Robust.
I just now pronunced “robust” to be my Word Of The Day. What, other than perhaps that third cup of coffee, could you say was “robust” in your day thus far? It’s the word that Mohawk Valley Trading Company uses to describe their maple syrup. And we are giving you an opportunity to see for yourself if there is truth in that advertising. Spring Mountain Living is giving 32 ounces of this robust and dark syrup away, and has offered this opportunity out to our Awesome Pantry Paratus readers! Cool of them, I must say.
We said…”Awesome, let’s do it–it gives them something to enjoy while they are prodigiously out there watching their own sap drip into the bucket!” Actually, you don’t have to really watch it…gravity does its thing. But you will want to watch that clear juice drip into your buckets at the end of a long day. When you push papers from one side of the desk to the other, or fix something that someone else will probably just break again, or spend most of your day wiping bottoms or feeding bottomless tummies…well, there is just joy found in the simplest acts of homesteading that bear results–especially delicious ones like maple syrup! At least for this choleric, checkmark-on-the-to-do-list, hyperactive homesteader, I like to do something that yields visible results. I do not get that in all of life, no one does.
So before I lead you to the “sign me up!” form for winning the Maple Syrup (a $30 value) by Mohawk Valley Trading Company, I want to first give you something even more valuable…the opportunity to get started on this traditional skill that very few know how to do anymore. Read up on tapping trees on the Pantry Paratus Blog, get a kit, and get started!
When we talk about self-sufficiency and the precarious state of the United States’ industrial food supply, few necessities are as problematic as securing a local sugar source. I may not speak for where you live, but we do not grow much by way of sugar cane up here in the Montana Pines. We do not actually grow many Maples either…but did you know you can tap Birch, too? Finding a local alternative and then learning the skill might make life easier for you if, shall we say, the “Domino” falls?
We just like to be prepared. And we like to be well-fed. And we really, really, like our maple syrup.
Check out our Maple Sugaring Section at Pantry Paratus, then sign up for this giveaway through Spring Mountain Living and Mohawk Valley Trading Company. If you would like to learn more about this great product, you can read about it on Spring Mountain Living’s blog here.
Robust & Well Fed,
Chaya