Life seems really busy theses days. The weeks fly by and the weekends don’t seem to last long enough, but Jana and I always make the most of the time we have together with the kids. There was a bit of a thaw in Atlantic Canada over the past week, most of the snow in my neck of the woods had melted, and the temperatures were abnormally mild, perfect for getting outside! Jana and I took the fam to Sugar Moon Farms. They produce beautiful maple syrup and serve up a mean maple inspired breakfast/lunch year round. Before our feast, I thought we should work up an appetite walking the trail and following the sap lines through the maple woods. Admittedly it was tough trekking over ice, through snow, mud puddles and crossing rickety log bridges that were overrun by their streams from the mid-winter thaw. We had the forest to ourselves and made it into quite an adventure. Caitrin lead the way with Ella close behind following the footsteps of her big sister and Jana hot on their trail. Jack and I were left behind, he is a bit of a doddler, but the thought of pancakes and maple syrup kept him going.
After a good 45 minutes in the woods, we returned to the log cabins where the syrup is made and the feast is prepared. Whole wheat biscuits with maple butter, all you can eat pancakes with blueberries and delicious maple syrup, maple baked beans, maple sausages and bacon, orange juice and coffee all tasted fantastic by the fire. We had been there before, and everything was better than I remembered, Jana however, still managed to get “mapled out”!
The drive home was quiet; the kids were tired from their trek through the woods and had bellies full of pancakes. It was a great day trip, but something was missing. Since it’s the off season, the sap wasn’t running so some of the activities weren’t available. Growing up I remember trips into the sugar bush for all things maple, and really enjoying the sticky maple taffy. Watching the hot bubbling maple syrup being poured onto packed snow and rolled around sticks was like magic. So it was time to create a little magic at home for my kids and make our own maple taffy, it was something I have always wanted to try! When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. So when mother nature gives you snow, make maple taffy!
Maple Taffy
What you’ll need:
Candy thermometer (I picked one up from Sobeys)
Deep sided pot
Popsicle sticks, wooden skewers or even forks will work
Clean lightly packed snow into any sort of container
Pure maple syrup
Ladle
How it’s made:
- Bring the maple syrup to a boil over medium high heat. Whatever you do, don’t stir the syrup at any point in the process, this will cause it to crystallize and your taffy won’t work as well.
- Cook the maple syrup until it reaches 238°F (115°C) on the candy thermometer and let it cool slightly. At this point it will have reached the softball stage. Meaning when it cools the taffy will be firm but chewy and not set hard like candies.
- Ladle the reduced syrup onto the snow in strips about 6" (15 cm) in length and let them sit for 10-20 seconds to firm up slightly.
- Before the taffy sets, start rolling the taffy from one end around the top of a popsicle stick. Let cool.
- Enjoy the sweet sticky maple taffy indoors or out!
