The Art of Pancakes

Now that you have found the best Maple Syrup money can buy (ours of course) please don't even think of pouring it over a frozen waffle or pancake. Pancakes on Sunday, and Saturday morning if time permits, have become somewhat of a ritual, we've made many a batch by trial and error and have learned a few things along the way. Great pancakes are not complicated but do require attention to detail. We would like to share the key ingredients and techniques that will take you to the next level of pancake making.

Flour: There is no substitute for fresh ground flour but if you do not have your own flour mill get the freshest you can find. We use a combination of wheat and white flour. We also add a touch of corn meal to the mix.

Liquid: Buttermilk makes the best pancakes hands down. We also add a dollop of sour cream to enhance the flavor.

The Mixing process: Mixing should be kept to minimum. Stir the liquid into the dry ingredients with 7-10 gentle strokes, you will have lumps in the batter. Over stirring activates the gluten in the flour and will make the pancakes tough.

The Resting period: The batter should rest for 5-10 minutes while the skillet heats up. This allows the gluten to relax and moisten some of the lumps of flour in the batter.

The Recipe: (this has been adapted from Cooks Illustrated)

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup unbleached flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup whole milk

1/4 cup sour cream

2 eggs

In large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients (my wife makes mixes multiple batches of dry ingredients and stores them in an air tight container for a quick breakfast during the week).

Whisk eggs, add buttermilk, whole milk and sour cream, whisk until blended. Add liquid to dry ingredients, remember stir gently and as little as possible, some lumps should remain. Let the batter rest 5-10 minutes.

Boalsburg Memorial Day Festival

For our 3rd year in a row we set up a booth at the Boalsburg Memorial Day Festival. The day starts with a 5k race (I have yet to compete) and continues with Civil War reenactments throughout the day. There are vendors selling a wide variety of hand made crafts, jewelry, pottery, leather goods and art. Our kids always enjoy the wagon rides through town and the petting zoo. They also have live music throughout the day and into the evening. My brother and his family live in town so we make a weekend of it and send the day on Sunday with his family. We plan on attending next year so if you live in the area mark your calander.

Low Impact Maple Production

With everyone going "green" lately we have decided to highlight some of the ways we produce maple syrup and at the same time use methods that are environmently friendly. By the way we have been doing these things for years.
1. We use tubing instead of buckets to reduce our activity in the woods. All our sap flows to one main collection point, we do not have to travel through the woods with tractors or ATV's causing root compaction. New research also shows that galvanized buckets contain lead which can leach into the sap and the final product.
2. We use scrap wood from local sawmills as firewood, rather than cutting down living trees. Also our evaporator has air injection for the most complete burn possible. The smoke you see rising from a fire is a result of incomplete combustion. The smoke contains carbon that can still be burned for heat. By forcing air into the firebox we burn those gases and maximize heat output. Our evaporator is also outfitted with a steam hood. The steam hood traps the steam from the boiling sap and is used to preheat incoming fresh sap (aprx. 40F) to 200F before it enters the evaporator pans.
3. We do not use any chemicals to clean our tubing. We use household vinegar which as you know is an acid. As it sits in the sap lines through summer and fall is slowly breaks down the residue on the tubing walls and is flushed out at the beginning of the next season.
4. We use reverse osmosis to remove 75% of the water in the raw sap before the boiling process. Less water in the sap means less boiling time and this means less fuel consumed.

These are just a few of the small things we do to achieve or goal of producing pure maple syrup but at the same time having respect for the surroundings we work with.

Open for Business

After two years of construction we have moved into our new store and are open for business. For years my father in law has wanted to build a retail outlet for his hardwood products (flooring, moldings, doors, etc). We started with an empty steal building and the finished product is sure to impress the most seasoned travelers. We actually took down a 100 year old barn and reconstructed it inside the building. The barn is complete with slate roof and copper flashing. The Hardwood Mall, as it is called, is a showcase of over 20 different species of wood. Our hardwood paneling covers most of the walls, and my brother-in-law who owns a hardwood floor installation business in Front Royal VA, installed over 8,ooo square ft of hardwood floors through out the Mall. We occupy a corner both and sell our maple products and butcher block as well as wooden toys, bowls, pottery, pepper mills and salt shakers. We are still adding products to our line up and I'm sure it will continue to change as we learn how to run a gift shop. The best part, everything in the Hardwood Mall & and our gift shop is American made. When I say that I mean good'ol made in the USA. All the furniture, rugs, hardwood products, gift shop products, kitchen cabnits, rocking chairs, doors, pictures, and whatever I missed is made in the USA. So stop and be proud of we still make in the USA.

2009 Maple Season Review

The 2009 maple syrup crop is in. We had a good year making just shy of 900 gallons. The weather was not the greatest this season, temperatures were a bit high (50 and 60's rather than high 30's and 40's) but we carried on none the less. Our new vacuum station worked like a charm. In the past we used a 6 hp gas engine to run one of our vacuum pumps. After learning the hard way that small gas engines are not made to run for 36 hours straight we decided to go electric. This fall we had a power poll set and moved the station 600 ft so it would be right next to the road. We had a few equipment problems, we blew up a sap transfer pump on the first day, and someone stole a $500 generator out of the woods, but nothing catastrophic. We had quite a few new quests stop by the sugarhouse, it is always fun to have people who no little or nothing about pure maple syrup stop by. Some of them think maple syrup comes straight out of the tree others are surprised to learn Mrs. Butterworth and Log Cabin are just corn syrup with caramel coloring. We have moved into or new store so if you are traveling interstate 80 through Pennsylvania stop in for a taste.

Our First Post

After some encouragement from family members we have decided to start a blog about our family's maple syrup business. Old State Farms is located in the northwestern part of beautiful Pennsylvania, Emlenton to be exact. We started making maple syrup, the year before we got married, in 2001 with 5 plastic buckets and 2'x2' stainless steel pan over an open fire. Seven years later we have 3200 taps and a 4'x12' commercial wood fired evaporator and we built a new sugarhouse in 2007, it's the building in the picture (a sugarhouse is the building where the sap from the maple trees is boiled down into maple syrup). We produce between 500 and 800 gallons of spring's sweet nectar each year. Among other things I plan to explain some of the details of how maple syrup is made, the equipment and methods used in the process, so if you are thinking of making maple syrup stay tuned. My wife is continually experimenting with maple syrup in the kitchen and if I can convince her to contribute to the blog she can share her advice for cooking with maple syrup.

Well that looks like a good start for now.

My brother-in-law was right, starting a blog isn't all that hard.

Joseph