Maple News
It’s getting to be that time of year! Time to learn how to make maple syrup (at least virtually), visit local sugar houses, and try a maple-flavored craft beer styled after Bernie Sanders’s now-iconic mitten-pose (“S’mitten Mittens” by Vermont’s Four Quarters Brewing Company). We do have fun, don’t we?
And there’s even more good news afoot. A fifth-generation Ontario producer makes a comeback in the age of COVID, a Pennsylvania producer donates 5% of revenues to charity each month, the second annual Kentucky Maple Syrup Day is in the offing, and this Ohio producer revives a collegiate sugarbush.
Your pantry already knows the versatility of 100% pure maple syrup! But here are more recipes to try all the same: Peanut Soup, Roasted Butternut Squash with Crumbled Chickpeas, Pecan Mocha Truffles, and Chocolate Almond Butter Squares.
Backyard News
You can add building luge and bobsled tracks to the list of audacious, COVID-era things people are up to in the backyard this winter. Also: this $2 Million “cigar lodge.” And: this backyard wedding chapel. (Speaking of backyard weddings, in celebrity backyard news, Pamela Anderson got married to husband #4 in her backyard recently.)
There’s still time to participate in the Audubon Society’s Great Backyard Bird Count! Will you see a Sharp Shinned Hawk, an Eagle, or one of these Owls in your backyard? Either way, think about leaving that downed tree. It may be a bonanza for winter wildlife.
Farmers are telling us to plan ahead for 2021 gardening season – supplies are, again, short! And folks who live in year-round growing seasons continue to help their neighbors by donating backyard produce to the hungry. Sun Belt, will you be our Valentine? Sincerely, Up North.