Maple Sugaring and Mud Season—Oh My!

It Must be March in New England What would a big stack of Maine blueberry pancakes be without fresh maple syrup poured over the top? We’re talking real maple syrup, not the type of artificial “pancake syrup” you find in grocery stores. That’s made from flavored corn syrup, and it’s not maple syrup! But what’s the difference between the two, and how is maple syrup made, anyway? You’ll find out in the pages of TOWN IN A MAPLE MADNESS, the eighth book in the Candy Holliday Murder Mystery series, due out April 4th. As we once again join the friendly and busy villagers of the coastal community of Cape Willington, Maine, it’s late March, which means it’s maple sugaring season. But it’s also the time of year when snow and ice are starting to melt, which means it’s mud season. Two big events, one sweet, one not so sweet, and they both play a prominent role in our story.

Cape Willington has two “sugar shacks”—one at Crawford’s Berry Farm, owned by
Neil Crawford, and the other at Sugar Hill Farm, owned by Hutch and Ginny
Milbright. As the story opens, both sugar shacks are in full operation, with
their evaporators fired up and boiling sap, releasing sweet-smelling steam. As
readers will find out, maple syrup comes from the sap of sugar maple trees, and
it’s produced in the northeastern United States and in Canada, where sugar
maples grow. Maine is one of the largest producers of maple syrup, and in the
fictional village of Cape Willington, maple sugaring is the primary activity in
early spring, before the strawberries, blueberries, and pumpkins take over in
the summer and fall.

The sap begins to flow in late February, when the daytime temperatures rise
above freezing but night-time temperatures fall below freezing. The season can
last anywhere from just a few days to several weeks, and it ends when the tree
buds begin to open. The length of maple sugaring season differs from year to
year, depending on the weather and air temperatures.

The sugar maple trees are tapped with one tap every spring (unless someone is
tapping them illegally, which happens occasionally in New England).
Traditionally, the sap runs into buckets attached to the trees, but typically
today, the taps are connected by plastic tubing that drains into one central
container, creating of network of tubing that’s not unlike a giant spider web
strung between the trees. It’s not uncommon to drive down a rural dirt lane in
New England and see the tubing connected to tree after tree all the way down the
road. It’s always an exciting time, because it’s one of the first signs that
spring is on the way.

After the syrup is collected, it’s transported to a sugar shack, usually by
tractor and cart, where it’s placed into an evaporator and boiled to remove
water. It takes, on average, about 43 gallons of raw sap to create one gallon of
maple syrup. As you can imagine, that takes a lot of time and effort, but the
flavorful result it well worth it! Once boiled, the syrup is graded from light
to dark. Light syrup is the mildest, while dark has the strongest flavor.

Of course, maple sugaring season is also mud season, which means getting to
those tapped trees, or getting anywhere on a dirt or back road, can be a tricky
proposition. Drivers in Maine and New England try to avoid as much as possible
those muddy back roads (which are everywhere in rural New England) in the
spring, but when they have to drive on them, they drive as fast as possible so
as not to get stuck, since the mud can become like quicksand. So beware if
you’re driving in Cape Willington in March! Just drive fast, hold on to the
steering wheel as tightly as you can, and hope for the best!

As all these natural events are taking place, the townspeople of Cape Willington
are preparing for their first annual Maple Madness Weekend. A number of
family-fun events are planned, including a Maple Marshmallow Roast in Town Park
and a maple scavenger hunt. The villagers are also opening a “pop-up” pancake
restaurant, where they’ll serve hot pancakes covered in fresh maple syrup all
weekend long. But in the middle of the festivities, disaster strikes, as the
body of one of the town’s most well-known residents is found floating in the
English River, his hands and feet tied up and a mortal wound in his back.

Who did it? That’s what blueberry farmer Candy Holliday, her father Henry “Doc” Holliday, local strawberry farmer Neil Crawford and his dog Random, and Candy’s best friend Maggie (Tremont) Wolfsburger, along with her new husband, Herr Georg Wolfsburger, and the other villagers have to find out. All the answers will be revealed in TOWN IN A MAPLE MADNESS, so be sure to pick up a copy. Your taste buds will thank you! COOKING TIP Did you know you can use maple syrup to replace regular sugar in baking recipes? The simple rule is, three quarters’ cup of maple syrup equals one cup of sugar. In TOWN IN A MAPLE MADNESS, we have included several recipes with maple syrup as an ingredient, including Black Forest Bakery Chocolate Maple Brownies, Maple Banana Bread, Maple-glazed Carrots, and Maple Drop Cookies. Enjoy! TOWN IN A MAPLE MADNESS will be published on April 4, 2017, by Berkeley Prime Crime, and available in both print and as an eBook. Other titles in the New York Times bestselling series include Town in a Cinnamon Toast (Book 7), Town in a Sweet Pickle (Book 6), Town in a Strawberry Swirl (Book 5), Town in a Pumpkin Bash (Book 4), Town in a Wild Moose Chase (Book 3), Town in a Lobster Stew (Book 2), and Town in a Blueberry Jam (Book 1). Large print editions of the books and an audiobook of Town in a Blueberry Jam are also available. For more information on the series, visit www.hollidaysblueberryacres.com. Candy Holliday

• 1Town In A Blueberry Jam
• 2Town In A Lobster Stew
• 3Town In A Wild Moose Chase
• 4Town In A Pumpkin Bash
• 5Town In A Strawberry Swirl
• 6Town In A Sweet Pickle
• 7Town in a Cinnamon Toast
• 8Town in a Maple Madness