'Round the World Weather Report

[klondike]

Yayyyyy!
We're havin' a Yankee Heat Wave! High temp so far this a.m.: ZERO!
That's p'etty dang respectable, 3 weeks before Sugarin' Season!

[JackFavell]

Oooh, I'm glad you reminded me... I need maple syrup!

We tapped our own trees two or three years ago, but we have the weedy Norway maples on either side of our house and they just don't make as good syrup.

[klondike]

We tapped our own trees two or three years ago, but we have the weedy Norway maples on either side of our house and they just don't make as good syrup.

Norway sap reduces to what's called Norse syrup up here (converting @ about 42/45>1), which is almost as tangy as it is sweet, and only about as thick as low grade corn syrup. Red Maple sap's not much better, yielding a result like a thin, golden molasses (36/40>1), and the saps of the Silver,Tiger & Swamp Maples have altogether too high a percentage of sulphurides & alkaloids to produce any kind of palatable syrup at all.
Far and away, the best & only really profitable tree for syrup is Vermont's state tree, the Sugar Maple (converting @ 22/25>1) whose product bears an exquisitely piquant flavor & clarity, depending on grade, with the Black Maple coming-in a close second (29/33>1), with a paler, broader character of syrup.
In Alaska, there is a popular "cottage" industry for Birch Syrup (yielded from any species thereof), a very light, almost almondine tasting syrup, converting from the sap at a prodigious 85/100>1 ratio!

[JackFavell]

I've never had the guts to try Birch syrup - it's expensive here and I am not too crazy about Birch beer, which tastes like wint-o-green lifesaver soda.

[klondike]

Wendy, don't mean to ramble on here like some lonely horticulturist, but I find it very interesting the way you described birch beer - because in the first quarter of the 20th century, hundreds of Appalachian families used to harvest the limbs & branches of Sweet Birch trees (sometimes known as Black Birch), and steam-press them for the extract, commonly called Mountain Tree Mint, in turn bought & marketed as a specific substitute for the much more expensive Oil of Wintergreen, which it reliably approximated.

[JackFavell]

That's cool! I am enjoying finding out about these northern products and their history and uses.... but does birch syrup taste like birch beer? Is it that "mountain tree mint" flavor?

[klondike]

No, oddly enough, it doesn't, not at all.
The flavor of birch syrup is hard to describe definitively . . it's a subtle one, not mild, but soft & full, and not what you'd typically equate with The Last Frontier.
There's long undertones of caramel & vanilla, and a faint suggestion of clove, yet it feels "juicey"to the palate, and the sweetness is very brief, not even as cloying as a fine honey. More than anything else. I guess, I might liken it to dandelion wine (the real, homemade stuff), minus the alcohol, mind you, and most of the dextrose.

[Professional Tourist]

Thundersnow overnight, fifteen inches accumulation in Central Park. No outings for me today.

[JackFavell]

Thanks, Klonny, I might actually buy some birch syrup this year!

I hope all you folks in the snow covered wastelands of NYC (and elsewhere) have a careful and safe day!

[Professional Tourist]

Fortunately my office closed today, so I don't have to use a vacation day. I hibernated all morning, just finished breakfast. Not even going to think about tomorrow morning's commute yet, though there is a chance of a little more snow tomorrow (and Saturday). Sigh.

[moira finnie]

PT, I'm sure it is getting old to hear this, but don't you think that the city looks beautiful in the snow---especially when you don't have to go out into it? I used to love the blue cast that the world took in the snow when I lived in Boston (which is getting hammered again too).

[Professional Tourist]

PT, I'm sure it is getting old to hear this, but don't you think that the city looks beautiful in the snow---especially when you don't have to go out into it?

Only on one level -- the snow creates too many problems, and outside of the parks and treetops does not remain beautiful for long. I'll have to go out into it tomorrow morning.

[Professional Tourist]

Updated total accumulation -- 19 inches in Central Park, one inch less than in the post-Christmas blizzard:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/nyreg ... ow.html?hp

Yikes. I don't wanna think about tomorrow morning.

[JackFavell]

The snow this morning was so bright when the sun finally came along. Whew! Gotta wear shades.

We are starting to have problems with accumulation here in Connecticut - is anyone else starting to have these problems? I'm sure you probably are.

It's difficult seeing above the five or six feet of snow to pull out of the driveway, and if you live on the corner of an intersection, it's even worse - because the plows are piling it up even higher there. And it's not just the sightlines.... Shoveling is getting difficult when the piles are already so high. We just don't have anywhere else to put any more snow.

Not only that, but our basement has flooded already on the one day last week when the temp went up to 40.... we are going to have some terrible flooding if we have prolonged higher temps. The first few snowfalls have turned to about a foot or so of ice underneath the newer snowfalls, and that is blocking the way for water run-off away from the house.

[moira finnie]