All this snow has made me think of “Little House in the Big Woods”. I loved reading this books as a child, it was a world I wanted to belong to.
I wanted to be in the sleigh with them as they drove through the snow to their Grandparent’s house, for the sap harvest. Once, they arrived Pa joined the men folk, trudging off into the snow to help start the sap buckets. Drilling holes into the thick bark to place a pipe that would drain the sap into the buckets below.
The women worked hard indoors for the party that would come that evening under the starlight. At the party to celebrate the winter harvest, Laura and Mary scoop fresh powdery snow into bowls and their Grandma ladles a stream of hot syrupy sap onto their dishes to make snow candy with. The sap hardened on the snow, thus making a chewy maple candy to enjoy.
“Grandma…poured hot syrup on each plate of snow. It cooled into soft candy, and as fast as it cooled they ate it. They could eat all they wanted, for maple sugar never hurt anybody.”
I always wanted to do this when I was little, I loved reading about Laura’s pioneer girl existence, I wanted to be a pioneer girl myself! I wanted to run through the fields with my hair in braids and my bonnet hanging down my back, the warm sun baking me as I brought Pa his lunch pail.
I found this recipe for “Snow Sugar” on the Laura’s Prairie House website:
I have not tried this particular recipe myself, so I will have to wait for the next snowfall and pull out my glass bottle of syrup and get to work!
{click on the recipe to be taken to a larger version}
