Maple Syrup Festival

One of the first rites of spring in southern Michigan is the tapping of the maple trees. A festival was held this past weekend (March 9-10, 2013) for the communities of the Big 400. It is an area of about 400 square miles which includes the counties of Jackson, Washtenaw (I live here), Livingston and Ingham.

We started our journey at the Eddy Discovery Center where we watched an early film of the process of making maple sugar. This was a method of preserving food back then. Next followed a discussion and demonstration on some of the tools; collecting sap (the path was a little icy back into the woods and we decided not to participate – did not wear the right shoes), early stage of boiling the sap (see below).

Instead of having their pancake breakfast (I did purchase Grade A syrup – I have Grade B and wanted to compare the two)

Grade A – light amber on the left (early stage of making maple syrup – rather mild) and Grade B – yum

we decided to have lunch at the Sandhill Crane Vineyards, our next stop.

Here we tasted a few delicious wines, all are medal winners; actually this winery has won more than any other in my beautiful state of Michigan. One was made out of maple syrup called Sugar Snow, a soft and not too sweet wine. Another dessert red wine called Rhapsody in Red had a splash of raspberry with Gilberts chocolate encased over the bottle – fun and something I have never seen before. A favorite at the winery! You can buy the wine without the chocolate but what the heck a dessert wine made with raspberries and chocolate to break up and eat – that’s a nice dessert.

Lunch in the café at the winery and a sorbet made with maple syrup and a maple cookie! The sorbet was made by Zingerman’s Creamery with Sandhill Crane’s Sugar Snow maple wine. Delicious cookie and the sorbet definitely had a maple syrup taste – not so sure about the sorbet! I should have ordered the maple flavored cake…