We are celebrating this sweet season with a special maple-syrup-specific brunch menu.
Now that the weather is finally getting warmer, maple sugaring season has begun. The season has been delayed a few weeks this year because of our never-ending snow and extended freezing temperatures in the Northeast. The conditions needed for sap to flow are pretty specific. You have to have consistently above-freezing temperatures during the day and freezing temperatures at night to get the suction inside the tree that will actually cause the sap to flow. So if you have weeks like we did in February where the temperature during the day never rose above freezing, then you’re going to have nearly no sap flow at all.
Even though there may be a shorter season this year, some scientists are predicting that it will be a particularly great year for sap. 2014 was what botanists call a “mast year,” which is when perennial trees like sugar maples synchronize their seed cycles, and all flower at about the same time. The theory is that in these years, maples will use their excess energy to produce more carbohydrates, which in turn means more sap. There was an interesting article about this in Forest Ecology and Management if you want to geek out over this with us.
Once the sap begins to flow, it is collected in buckets hanging from the trees to be boiled into maple syrup — it takes 40 gallons of sap to make each gallon of maple syrup.
To celebrate the season we are offering a maple syrup specific brunch menu that we launched during TEDxManhattan.
There’s warm maple pecan brioche with whipped maple chili butter,
Maple Roasted Parsnips and Carrots with Poached Eggs atop a Sunchoke Purée with Parmesan and Crispy Shallots,
And a special Maple Water Quencher made from fresh sap straight from Tree Juice Farm in Arkville, NY.
Join us for this sweetest of seasons! And if you want to go see the the tree tapping and the sugar shack boiling, check out Tree Juice Maple in Arkville, NY. They have several open houses the next few weekends for visitors.
