EVER TRY JACKWAX?

eh?

I want to be part of this thread.

<it sounds naughty>

[hovering nearby]

jackwax is the maple sap that is just allowed to spill on the snow (clean snow) Its a great treat when its maple sugaring time.
Theres gotta be some others whove gone maple sugaring.

Ya mean there is such a thing as clean snow these days????

I've never heard it called that before, but sure, I've had that. It's deelish.

Texas don't got much if any jackwax.

yeh down in Texas you got killer bee honey

For those brave (or stupid) enough to go after it.

What're you sayin'?

I'm married to her...

Tree suckers...

I went to school in Quebec, and every year at maple-harvesting time, places all over the province celebrate the 'Cabane au Sucre'. You can go help harvest the sap, and get rewarded by fine traditional fare. Here is one of many places you can go (sorry, you will have to translate the page):

http://www.cloxt.com/cabane_sucre_gagnon/

'Oreilles de crisse' translates into 'Ears of grates', but just so you know, it's basically thick cut bacon, blanched and grilled until crispy.

cav - I've been to that place. I went to Quebec in the winter with my high school French class. Very yummy food (with generous pourings of sugar water, of course)

Cool Sugar! At McGill, they always had a bed of fresh chopped ice and maple sap (and popsicle sticks) near the student common to tempt us.

Here in Michigan it is commonplace to tap the maple trees. I haven't participated in this event since grade school... I've never heard it called Jackwax.

We have the 'Cabane au Sucre' here too, but I think we import the stuff from Quebec or Ontario. It's too cold and dry here for sugar maples to survive.

Ive heard the jackwax term from NY state and N Pa. I have no idea why its so called.

Here's a great explanation:


Snow and syrup make a sweet treat to eat: The New England recipe for "jack wax" perpetuates an age-old winter tradition.

By DEEPA BHARATH
Steve Brown knows all about eating snow.

From his boyhood in Vermont, Brown, now a natural resources agent at the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Ithaca, recalls the sweet taste of boiling maple syrup on soft, fresh snow.

The maple sap, when boiled, turns into thick syrup. When poured on fresh snow, it becomes a taffy that can be scooped by hand or with a fork. This syrup-snow taffy is called "jack wax."

Maple syrup doesn't work very well with ice, Brown said. Packed snow is best for these sweet patties. Brown likes to pack soft, fresh snow into a bucket and then drizzle down the hot, thick syrup.

"It was a tradition in Vermont," Brown said. "We ate it with dill pickles and doughnuts."

Brown said he enjoys the queer combo. The sweet and sour tastes complement each other, he said.

"I always joke about it," he said, "that it was probably our earliest exposure to something similar to Chinese food."

The maple syrup and snow mix is an age-old tradition. Even before Europeans came to North America, Iroquois, Abenaki and other Native Americans who maintained "sugar bushes" poured maple syrup on snow to make their own snow candy.

Traditionally, this treat was the feature of the "sugaring off" party held at the sugar house to celebrate the end of the syrup harvest, said Karl Wiles, owner of the Cedarvale Maple Syrup Company on Pleasant Valley Road.

"People just enjoy it," Wiles said. "I haven't seen anybody who has health concerns about eating snow."

Cedarvale has its own official recipe for jack wax. Heat maple syrup to 230 degrees. While hot, pour on snow or crushed ice and eat, preferably with your fingers.