A Grading Window (All photos: Susan McCrory)

Susan McCrory

When my brothers, sister and I were little, Saturdays mornings were really special. My mom would sleep in, her one treasured morning of the week, and my dad would make us pancakes for breakfast. We had one of those old-fashioned stainless steel griddles, the kind where you lift the top half off the bottom half to open the thing up, there is no On-Off button, just the cord, and you can switch the griddles from smooth (for pancakes or amazing grilled sandwiches) to bumpy (for waffles). My dad would whisk up the batter, grease the griddle with Crisco (yep) and pour out pancakes four at a time, sizzling as they hit the hot griddle. Heaven. All of us still LOVE pancakes, and so do our kids. Ever the breakfast chef, my dad still makes them on weekends at our summer house on Lake Winnepesaukee.

Now for the syrup. I don’t recall the brand, but I can guarantee you I grew up on store-brand stuff. That mix of artificial color, corn-syrup and whatever, with maybe a smidgen of pure maple syrup making a cameo in there somewhere. Not my kids. Last Sunday afternoon we feasted on homemade pancakes topped with the gorgeous-tasting pure maple syrup we had just carried home from Turtle Lane Maple Farm in North Andover.

The Evaporator

We braved the pouring rain, flooded roads and veritable rivers coursing through the Turtle Lane property to reach their sugar house and we weren’t alone. We packed ourselves in with about 20 others to listen to the super-informative, super-friendly tour given by owner Paul Boulanger and his wife Kathy Gallagher. What we learned: the sugaring began unexpectedly early this year, around Feb. 18, catching maple farmers off-guard; sugar maples, followed by black and red maples, produce the most sap; on average, 40 gallons of sap go into making one gallon of syrup; maple syrup and maple-flavored products really took off in popularity after World War II, when imported cane sugar again became available and farmers could devote their sap to products other than sugar; the darker the syrup, the more intense the flavor.

Sap boiling in trays

Farmer Paul anticipates that this weekend, March 20-21, will be the last sugaring weekend of the season. If you plan on visiting one, call your sugar house first to make sure they’re still boiling (check this directory of sugar houses put out by the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association). Included below is a quick recipe for pancakes, thanks to the MMPA brochure. Enjoy!

Pre-filtered syrup

Pancakes:

1 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

PS: my dad’s recipe, which I still use, is similar but it includes two no-no’s: sugar and salt. LOL. And, though I don’t use Crisco to grease it up (!), I am the proud owner of my grandmother’s old-fashioned griddle.

Steam rising