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Ontario, Canada
I am a wife, mother and grandma who enjoys the many aspects of homemaking. A variety of interests and hobbies combined with travel keep me active. They reflect the importance of family, friends, home and good food.
Cook ingredients that you are used to cooking by other techniques, such as fish, chicken, or hamburgers. In other words be comfortable with the ingredients you are using.
--Bobby Flay

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  • [March 19, 2020] - Effective Mar 17, this blog will no longer accept advertising. The reason is very simple. If I like a product, I will promote it without compensation. If I don't like a product, I will have no problem saying so.
  • [March 17, 2020] - A return to blogging! Stay tuned for new tips, resources and all things food related.
  • [February 1, 2016] - An interesting report on why you should always choose organic tea verses non-organic: Toxic Tea (pdf format)
  • Sticky Post - Warning: 4ever Recap reusable canning lids. The reports are growing daily of these lids losing their seal during storage. Some have lost their entire season's worth of canning to these seal failures! [Update: 4ever Recap appears to be out of business.]

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Friday, January 10, 2014

Local Maple Syrup

It's hard to imagine while digging out of the recent snowstorm that the maple syrup season is just around the corner.  I have very fond memories of going to the sugar bush!  Every year a group of us would go to a neighbour's sugar bush that was close enough for me to bike to in the warmer weather.  We used to go there for campfires too.  It was their family homestead, generously used for many church and Girl Guide outings.  We would watch them collect the sap from the maple trees, replacing each bucket as they emptied it.  The sap was carefully carried to the huge boiling trough.  Later we loved eating the sugar candy - hot maple syrup drizzled on clean snow to harden.  To this day, maple syrup remains one of my favourite natural sweeteners!

Canadian maple syrup
We buy maple syrup directly from local producers whenever possible but I also keep a bottle of store bought maple syrup on hand just in case.  We were at our vacation home for most of October, flying home for three weeks then back down for five weeks.  Those three weeks were exciting but chaotic.  Our flight was delayed by a day so we got in on the Wednesday, rushed to the GTA to greet our newest grandchild, then back in time for my husband to leave for hunt camp that Saturday. 

He was gone for a week.  It was a successful hunt so he came home with venison.  He also surprised me with a litre of locally produced (near the hunt camp) maple syrup.  Maple syrup bought this way is usually a little half the cost of store bought.  Buying directly from the source makes a lot of sense.  It's a great way to get to know your local food producers.  My mouth is watering just thinking of the yummy dishes this maple syrup will be used in.  Delicious! 


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