Maple syrup one of life's sweet mysteries
Bangor Daily News - 3/29/2010.By Christopher Cousins – Canaan: With tapped maple trees and roadside sap houses so common in Maine this time of year, one might arrive at the notion that making perfect maple syrup is easy. You just boil it down, right? Wrong. Even when everything is done correctly, producing top-quality, Grade A, light-amber syrup is a bit hit-or-miss, said Ethan Robertson, who ought to know. He has been making syrup all his life, as did his father and grandfather. |
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Success of first alewive harvest encourages town
Portland Press Herald - 3/29/2010.By Scott Monroe – Benton: Rick Lawrence didn't know what to expect before last year's first alewife harvest from the Sebasticook River. He predicted the town might make $5,000 on the fish harvest. It ended up generating $19,108 in new revenue for the town. It was the year's largest alewife run in the United States, with 452,000 fish harvested from May to June. |
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Maine Maple Sunday offers up treats galore for all ages
Kennebec Journal - 3/29/2010.By Amy Calder – Skowhegan: Nancy Pooler breathed in the sweet, steamy scent of boiling sap and luxuriated in the moment. "It's just sensational," she said. Pooler and her sister, Ann Pelletier of Winslow, were standing in the steamy Smith Brothers sugar house on Rowe Road Sunday, tasting tiny spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream topped with a drizzle of maple syrup. |
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Push to eat local foods is hampered by shortage
New York Times - 3/28/2010. By Katie Zezima – East Montpelier, VT: Erica Zimmerman and her husband spent months pasture-raising pigs on their farm here, but when the time came to take them to slaughter, an overbooked facility canceled their appointment. With the herd in prime condition, and the couple lacking food and space to keep them, they frantically called slaughterhouses throughout the state. After several days they found an opening, but their experience highlights a growing problem for small farmers here and across the nation: too few slaughterhouses to meet the growing demand for locally raised meat. |
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