It was early February, just after a light, fluffy snowfall, but I was already thinking spring! Two of my favorite late-winter events triggered such sunny thoughts:
First was the sweet (though surprisingly loud!) song of the Northern House Wren through the glass doors to our deck. Wrens don’t migrate very far, with most wintering in the southern United States. This means that they’re among the first birds to return, and some don’t leave at all. I left the wren house attached to the tall shepherd’s hook behind our house all winter. Perhaps they used it as shelter on the chilliest days?
The second is maple sugaring season. In Vermont there is the traditional Open Sugar House Weekend in March, where 90 of the state’s 3,000 syrup producers open their doors for a tour. Every year we would travel the muddy back roads (mud up to the hubcaps, you learn to “wiggle” the steering wheel to move forward) to visit local places, from hi-tech operations with gleaming stainless-steel evaporators to small wooden shacks still using metal buckets. Each had different stories to tell and their syrup had distinctly different flavor profiles.
Maple syrup season in Connecticut extends from early February until late March. The flow of sap depends on the freezing nights and warm, sunny days at the end of winter. Sweet Wind Farm in East Hartland has some of the best syrup I’ve had. Venture up the wooden stairs when they are boiling, and you are immediately surrounded by a maple steam bath sauna. Tasting the syrup piping hot, straight from the spigot, is one of life’s pure pleasures. Rather than including a recipe, I suggest you take advantage of this local seasonal bounty and experiment with everything maple. Syrup, of course, but maple sugar, maple candy, maple salad dressing, maple butter, and maple cream on cinnamon raisin toast — yum! Happy Spring!
