Meatless Monday: Maple Syrup, Sweetly Sublime

In the most recent issue of the Food Chain, Slow Food USA®’s newsletter, guest blogger John Forti shared a recipe for Parsnip Johnny Cakes sweetened with maple syrup.

Forti, who is Curator of Historic Landscapes at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, an ethnobotanist and a garden historian, also made the claim that maple syrup “provides perhaps the first documentation for our eat local and food justice movements. Over 150 years ago Ralph Waldo Emerson and many of the abolitionists put forth the idea that instead of buying sugar that made slave plantation owners prosperous, consumers should buy maple sugar and syrup and keep local farmers thriving.”

Early spring is maple sugaring time in the Northeast. Maple syrup has been much in the news of late. What a perfect topic for today’s post!

Maple Syrup Season by Charles Rondeau

Maple syrup is far healthier than any processed sweetener. It is an excellent source of manganese, riboflavin, and zinc. It also contains significant amounts of magnesium, calcium, and potassium, and is lower in calories than honey or brown sugar, averaging 50 calories per tablespoon. Purely a plant product, maple syrup is vegan-friendly.

The Native Peoples were turning maple sap into sugar long before the colonists arrived.  It is unclear when the Native Americans began boiling the sap to make sugar. An early account describes the extraction of sugar by freezing. The maple and its sap are the subject of many tribal myths. 

Maple syrup is produced only in North America and is an important agricultural product in several northern states and southern Canadian provinces. Maple syrup is Vermont’s signature agricultural product. As the industry leader in the US, Vermont produces nearly 40% of the nation’s maple syrup—over one million gallons in the near record year of 2011!

The Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association has an excellent website with sections devoted to the history of maple syrup, its manufacture, recipes, and special events. 

Here is a brief summary of how maple syrup is made. When temperatures reach 45° F during the day, and the nights remain below freezing, it’s time to tap the sugar maple trees. The sugarmaker drills a hole in the trunk, inserts a tap, and starts collecting the sap. The sap is brought to the sugarhouse where it is boiled down. Sap looks like clear water and averages 2-3% sugar content. It takes 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup, with a sugar content of just under 67%. Once the trees begin to leaf out, the season is over.

Climate scientists are concerned about the future of maple sugaring. 

The 2012 season was deemed “too warm.” A series of heat waves in March forced the early budding of maple trees in all the New England states except Maine, bringing the maple syrup season to an abrupt close. Vermont produced 750,000 gallons of syrup last year, down 32% from 2011. 

Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, is seeking graduate students who want to study the impact of a changing climate upon this industry through an interdisciplinary program called Maple Syrup and Maple Leaves. 

Maple syrup is an extremely valuable commodity. The 2011 price per gallon of syrup was $37.90. The US value for production was $106 million.

The Great Maple Syrup Heist.

Last year Canadian authorities arrested 18 individuals in connection with the theft of 9,600 barrels of maple syrup from a warehouse in Quebec, siphoned off between August 2011 and July 2012. The value of the syrup was $18 million dollars!

The US is not exempt from Maple Syrup crimes. The US Forest Service rangers in Maine have reported an increase in unauthorized tapping of maple trees on private property. To compound the problem, thieves are using drill bits that are too large, placing four taps where they should be placing just one, and using PVC piping that damages the trees. These actions make the trees more susceptible to decay and disease.

Writing this post has stirred up some memories. Years ago, friends in Swanton, Vermont invited us to help out as they tapped their trees and boiled down the sap in a sugarhouse they shared with their neighbors. Decades later I can still feel and taste the heavy, sweet, maple steam that filled that tiny house as the sap boiled away…

Have a great week.

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Lest We Forget…

It has been over two years since the nuclear power plant in Namie-machi, Fukushima, Japan was crippled by the tsunami triggered by the “Great East Japan Earthquake.” In the aftermath of the nuclear accident on March 2011, all 21,000 residents of the town of Namie-machi were forced to flee their homes.

They are still forbidden to enter the city.

On March 27, the mayor of Namie-machi, Mr. Tamotsu Baba, wrote a guest post on the Official Google blog in which he announced the results of a collaboration with Google to find a way that the citizens of that city, and the world, could get a better sense of the devastating effects the disaster had on the area.

With his cooperation, Google Street View cars drove through Namie-machi, capturing images of the city as it is today, with its shuttered shops and deserted streets. These images of Fukushima Exclusion Zone Town Namie-machi are now available on Google Maps. 

One image shared on the Official Google Blog on 3.27.13

The mayor posted several images and commented on their significance. He also wrote, “Ever since the March disaster, the rest of the world has been moving forward, and many places in Japan have started recovering. But in Namie-machi time stands still. With the lingering nuclear hazard, we have only been able to do cursory work for two whole years. We would greatly appreciate it if you viewed this Street View imagery to understand the current state of Namie-machi and the tremendous gravity of the situation…We want this Street View imagery to become a permanent record of what happened to Namie-machi in the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster…Finally, I want to make a renewed commitment to recovering from the nuclear hazard. It may take many years and many people’s help, but we will never give up taking back our hometown.”

Fukushima was not the only region in Japan to sustain severe damage from the earthquake and tsunami. At the Memories for the Future Project site it is possible to view “before” and “after” photos of a number of places throughout Japan. When the people fled these areas they left behind their homes and most possessions, including cherished photos and videos. The Memories for the Future Project was established in order to help people “rediscover lost memories of their homes and towns.” 

These images are powerful reminders of the horrific consequences when the forces of man and nature collide.

Meatless Monday: 1 Box + 2 Cans = One Great Meal

The recipe came from a box, and it’s a keeper — No foolin’.

The vegan counterpart to what I knew as “Train Wreck,” a one-dish meal of elbow macaroni, canned tomatoes, and ground beef, this hearty entrée was just what we needed after a full day of gardening and heavy lifting. 

The recipe was printed on the back of a box of Vita-Spelt® spelt elbows. The other main ingredients are a can of canned tomatoes and a can of garbanzo beans. All you need to complete the recipe is a couple of cloves of garlic and some common kitchen spices.

This dish was delicious! The spelt is less heavy than than whole wheat pasta. [Note: It is also very high in protein, 9 grams per serving.]

Elbows, Chick Peas, & Tomatoes 

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 package Vita-Spelt® Elbows
• 1 T olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (16 oz) Italian tomatoes, chopped with their juice [I like Muir-Glen Fire-Roasted, organic and packed in a BPA-free can!]
• 2 T fresh parsley, minced (or 1 T dried)
• 1/2 teaspoon each dried basil and oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 can (16 oz) chick peas, rinsed well and drained

Method

• Heat oil in medium skillet over medium flame for 30 seconds. 
• Add garlic and sauté, stirring for about 30 seconds.
• Add the tomatoes (with juice) along with the spices, stirring until mixture comes to a boil.
• Lower heat so mixture bubbles gently. 
• Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, until slightly thickened.
• Stir in the chick peas and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes more.
• Cook elbows according to package directions.
• Drain macaroni and transfer to a warm bowl.
• Pour in the chick peas and tomato mixture and toss gently.

See how easy? If you keep these few staples on hand, you will never be more than 30 minutes away from a healthy, satisfying meal. Thanks Vita-Spelt® for this great recipe — for, as we all know, not every day can be a slow food day.

Happy April Fool’s Day! Have a great week.

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”