Oh, that's nice. We don't use much but I have a couple of recipes that call for it and I love it on a buttered waffle. The real thing, not the grocery store imitation flavored products. The last I bought was Trader Joe's and it is good - this is not maple syrup country here on the W coast.

A gallon! I purchased a 6 oz jug for $6 and thought it was a deal. A gallon = $128! :0) I wonder what it costs there?

Nicole, I found 1/2 gallon of Rose's brand for $44.

The gallon she bought cost her only $50. It's a local place and their business is maple syrup and other products, Hurry Hill Farms

While I greatly prefer food that's fresh and more natural and of traditional sources - eggs from pastured chickens, chicken from small boutique producers, etc., I've never developed a preference for real maple syrup. I once visited a farm's sugar house outside of Montreal when it was in operation (I don't remember the time of the year) and tasted freshly produced syrup that was described as of a higher grade than what's normally found in stores. It didn't do much for me.

I blame a childhood of nothing but Log Cabin to have imprinted that flavor. We don't use much but get the one with sugar and not high fructose corn syrup. .

Rose, it sounds like your daughter found a great price on a local product for everyone to enjoy.

$50 is a steal!

Enjoy! Such a treat!

Mmmm. Love maple syrup, I have a bread recipe that calls for oatmeal, maple syrup and black coffee, it's really good toasted.

When I can't find some from one of the neighbors or the local Amish community, I get it here from a place called Cook's Sugar Bush, $47.00 a gallon plus shipping for Grade B, which I like best anyway. Sometimes I splurge and get some maple cream, it's whipped maple syrup, to spread on hot biscuits.

http://www.cookssugarbush.com/store/category.cfm?Category=40

Annie

Where is Cook's Sugar Bush located, do you know, Annie? Quebec is either the world 's largest producing area, or close to it.

I remember paying about $45. for a gallon to a friend many years ago, some over 20.

I seldom have it, but really enjoy it when I do.

ole joyful

The neighbors are very busy this March with syrup making. Trees to tap, reverse osmosis the boiling down and finally put in quart jars. It's a lot of labor!!!

We made our own for years. Yes, a labor-intensive project! We had so much of it that, like Jupidupi, I used it for everything. Haven't done that for years. I recently bought a jar of sweet potato syrup. It tastes like . . . sweet potatoes! It'll never replace maple syrup, but it's interesting.

It would be wasted on me..........I don't care for syrup of any kind. Far too sweet for my tastes and it makes things soggy. I don't like soggy :-) I do admit to having a small jug of maple syrup in my larder that I use occasionally for cooking/baking needs. Same with molasses......and that gets used about as infrequently as does the syrup.

My brother does The Master Cleanse every year and claims it helps with his arthritis. It's basically a fast that involves drinking a mix of water, lemon juice, grade B maple syrup and cayenne. He does it for a week or two, and claims that after a while you start to like the drink so much that when you have lemonade, you feel like adding a pinch of cayenne.

ole joyful, Cook's is in Niles, Michigan, downstate from me about 3 hours or so. We're having a really good "tapping season" this year, so the neighbors are going to have lots, I think, enough to keep me happy, that's for sure.

My husband likes it to glaze salmon on the grill, too. I put a drizzle on my oatmeal in the morning, along with a handful of blueberries and pecans and a splash of milk, so we use it pretty regularly even though we seldom have pancakes or waffles or such.

I know there are antioxidants and minerals in maple syrup, but I doubt the little that I use makes a significant difference, but you never know. (That's my excuse for using it, I LOVE the stuff, LOL)

Grandpa used to tap the maple trees and boil sap, I still remember that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup, but I haven't done that. Yet. Now the neighbor has some reverse osmosis gizmo instead of all that boiling.

Annie

Annie, thanks for the tip. I just received my gallon of maple syrup from Cooks. Only took a few days to get here.

We buy it at Costco, $12.49 for 33.8 fl oz which is about a quart. (128 fl oz equals 1 fl gal). That comes to about $50 gal.

I grew up in New England and we always had real maple syrup until we moved to Illinois when I was 10. I HATED the fake Log Cabin or other brands. They did not taste like REAL maple syrup. I switched to honey for pancakes.

Later in my twenties, my parents started going back to NE in the summer to visit family. My dad would buy a case from Vermont sellers and would give me a small can. It had to last a year, so I would be very frugal in it's use.

We also needed it for our traditional Christmas maple fudge. I still make it every year. It is so good!

Good friends of our just pulled their taps for the year. I know how natural it is thus best for you as far as sweets go..but I find it basically tasteless and when I crave pancakes I think it's really the maple syrup is want and the natural REAL just doesn't do it for me. sigh

My grannie used to grow sugar cane so we could participate in her family cane boil. Same sort of thing in a way. They had a pressing mill that was operated by a mule and this vast long pan with fires underneath fueled by the cane slash. The molasses was wonderful, not the tarry gunk you get in grocery stores. We had it on everything. It was great fun to be a part of something most people could only read about then. I would love to see a maple sugar house at work.

I too am one of the ones that real maple syrup is tasteless. At most it is just slightly sweet and there is something there that is a flavor. It smells wonderful but even doing the wine tasters thing the taste is lacking.

I love the flavor if real maple syrup, hubby's family uses the fake stuff (yuck). Then I introduced him to the real thing and he's never going back. It's also good for flavoring cake frosting of spice or vanilla cake.

Real sugar cane syrup is good too but I can't get it since I left the south.

I like the grade B and C maple syrups - they have a more intense taste. Can only find these with local makers. They only sell grade A to stores.

I guess this fits in with Nicole's Have you found any bargains lately. I'm usually so jealous when I read her bargains, but must admit I could not use up even a pint of maple syrup in the time I have left. I do love it but so rarely have pancakes, waffles or French toast and never really used it on anything else.

I also prefer the lower grades. We got some really dark Maple syrup at Christmas from a SIL last year. Really good. Dark Honey like Balsam has more flavor too though I would never turn down the fragrant floral tasting Sourwood honey.

That looks so good! I'm jealous. I made pancakes yesterday and had to make do with some Mrs. Butterworth.

We never tapped the maple trees in the 20 acres or so of woodlot at the far end of Dad's 250 acre farm, rather large for the area near here in those pre-World War II days.

When Dad moved to the prairies and rented the farm, the renter began to tap the maples and when Dad sold the farm a few years later, the new owners continued tapping their maples and later tapped a number of trees on nearby farms.

Some years later they lost about 50 acres, which included most of their maples, to building a freeway, so they didn't tap at home but continued boiling the sap from their neighbours' trees in their bush for many years.

ole joyfuelled ... enjoys additional fuelling by maple syrup