Anybody know if GUTHRIE'S BATTLE GROUND SYRUP is pure maple syrup? If it is I wonder if Arlo would trade some syrup for Linda & my honey-maple mead? We make it out of maple syrup (and honey...obviously). Yummy stuff and about 17% alcohol to boot. Takes about a gallon of honey and 1 to 1.25 gallons of maple syrup to get about five gallons of the mead. It could be called "Blunder Road Mead" (after that old Robert Mitchum movie, "Thunder Road", about "shine" runners).

I made some maple syrup a couple of times over an open fire. There's about a 40 to 1 ratio of sap to syrup, so it took forever to boil down, but it was just about the best maple syrup that I'd ever tasted! I can't imagine that the "original Americans" made it in hollowed out logs and used heated rocks to boil it down! Lots of work!

"A friend with mead is a friend, indeed!"

Capt'n Zap

Hi Zap!! Battleground Syrup as described in 'Get Stuff' is "A superior blend of natural cane syrup,maple syrup and molasses from a Guthrie family recipe."
"The North woods of New England meet the warm molasses of the south."

Only trouble is I can't get any (sigh)as they only do ground shipping on the syrup and there's LOTS of water between here 'n there! I guess I'll just have to wait 'til I get over there to try it!

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by louise:

Hi Zap!! Battleground Syrup as described in 'Get Stuff' is "A superior blend of natural cane syrup,maple syrup and molasses from a Guthrie family recipe."
"The North woods of New England meet the warm molasses of the south."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for the list of ingredients, Wheezie. Guess it would be good on pancakes, waffles, and zee French toast, non? Mais, je ne pense pas pour le mead! (Forgive my horrible attempt at French!) We try to keep the mead as simple as we can. Besides which, "Honey-Maple Mead" takes up a lot less label space as "Honey-Maple-Sugar Cane-Molasses Mead" would. (Molasses? Wasn't that the name of a band Stephen Still was in?)

For somebody that lives on the other side of the planet, you're quite well informed about stuff around here! Thanks a bunch!

<img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/peace.gif" width=16 height=16>
Capt'n Zap

When one lives in Celery Time AND Vegemite Time all at the SAME time lots of stuff comes to one.
Being upside down all the time, lots of stuff just kinda falls into ones head!
You'd think that more stuff would fall out than in, being upside down and all!

If ya think about it, we're all upside-down. When we're upright, our heads are all pointing away from Mother Earth, so the only stuff that'll fall into 'em is from outer space, and outside of a bunch of rocks and stuff floatin' around up there, it's a vacuum! Guess that could explain a lot about what's going on in the world!

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Zap

Yuk! Yuk! Zapper! Still giggling over your Stephen Stills joke. Very witty and eloquent of you! The mead sounds yummy, as does Arlo's mix. Alas I'm over here near Louise, so can't partake at the minute. The only good maple syrup here is the expensive imported stuff as we don't have maple trees. Maybe we should invent a gum nut syrup!??!!

SInce ya'll don't have maple syrup there maybe you could order some of Arlos. Since I can't have any, someone deserves to have some. <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/smile.gif" width=15 height=15>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by BobbiB:
The only good maple syrup here is the expensive imported stuff as we don't have maple trees. Maybe we should invent a gum nut syrup!??!!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey, BobbiB. My taste buds are saddened that ya don't have any good (and inexpensive) alternatives to maple syrup. I have read that some folks in Alaska, which appears not to have any maple trees either, have had some success with making birch syrup (I believe that you have to boil down a heck of a lot more sap, though).

But mead just needs honey, water, yeast, and time. Anything else you put in the mix is up to you. There's a good online resource called "Got Mead"
http://www.gotmead.com/

Lots of recipes and links. And if ya don't want to wait for the mead to mature (it can take anywhere from 6 months to several years) then you can make beer! Only takes a few weeks from brewin' to stewin'.

Linda and I try to avoid traditional beers. Hops, the normal ingredient in today's beer, are a depressant and contain a phytoestrogen (Female hormone of the plant world). Hence, some guys get drunk, can't perform (in the biblical sense), and get depressed. One source I read said that there's a condition well known in England called "Brewer's Droop"! I reckon we know what's a-droopin'!

A very good book on alternative beers is <u>Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers</u> by Stephen Harrod Buhner, Brewers Publications. Lots of very old recipes from different cultures around the world.

Oops! Looks like I'm guilty of something friend of mine used to do. To quote the late, great Al Bernadt, "There I go, again! Dispensing over-information!"

<img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/peace.gif" width=16 height=16>
Capt'n Zap

Thanks Zap for all the info. We don't got Birch trees here either so that's not a goer, and I don't drink beer. Hubby does though, and he's had a go a doing the home brewing thing. Not too Bad he reckoned. Have tasted some scrummy mead at a Medieval Fair (you know- where they all get dolled up in costume and joust and stuff. Funny seeing Knights with dreadlocks though!) Will check out that website in between the tightrope walking and the juggling- might have a go at brewing some mead. We have a herbal wine here called Norfolk Punch which is quite nice, and I've heard of one Called Dr. Red which is supposed to be brilliant for guys with prostate troubles. Ain't Mother Nature grand!

Yeah, I've enjoyed a few sips of warmed Norfolk Punch while sitting by the Firepit on a cold (well cold for here)winters night. We do have a Tropical Birch tree here,hhhhmmmmmm....we have some at work (I'm a Horticulturist,grow plants for landscapers at a production nursery)I've always loved birchs and want to plant some at home, I could experiment? Every now and then I lash out and buy a jar of Camp Pure Maple syrup, from Canada, at the supermarket.

There are a lot of legends about how maple syrup was discovered by the First Americans. One was that a fella threw his axe at a maple tree and it started dripping sap. Well, off he went, but his wife noticed the sap a drippin' from the tree and used it, instead of water, to make the evening meal. When they ate their meal, they were amazed at the way cool sweet taste. So, after some messin' around with the sap for awhile, maple syrup was invented.

But a couple of similar myths that I like best delve into human nature. Seems that, at one time, the sap from maple trees was maple syrup. Well, it was so easy to get that a lot of folks would just lay under the trees and let the sweet stuff drip right into their mouths. This led to an overall display of laziness in the whole village. So somebody (the Creator, a spirit, or a tribal member, depending on the legend), got a bit perturbed at this general lack of initiative and diluted the sap coming from the trees to the point that it was a lot of work to boil it down to get the sweet syrup.

I have eaten pine sap off the tree but I did not do it twice

Read one of them Euell Gibbons books, didn't ya Nathen?

I believe Pete used to do a song about Maple Syrup Time. Maybe Arlo can use it as the jingle for his new syrup... <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/smile.gif" width=15 height=15>