WHAT GOES UP on the counter, in this case a large glass jar of salsa verde, must come down.
This howlingly painful realization occurs when you bump the jar while in the initial assembly stages of breakfast burrito construction and the heavy bottle slams down on your fourth toe on your left foot, leaving the glass intact, but the bone broken.
A stress fracture while on winter vacation. Such delicious irony, and eventually, a burrito.
The injury curtailed a White Christmas walk through a snowy Lincoln Park and plans to head to the coast for a New Year’s Eve razor clam dig.
Spice up ‘boring time of year’
Even if the weather was right, I wouldn’t have had much fun limping through another winter tradition, albeit one more normally associated with New England — tapping maples to make syrup.
This activity, possible on the North Olympic Peninsula, can make for “a heck of a hobby at a very boring time of year,” according to Quilcene’s Ward Norden, a former fisheries biologist and owner of Snapper Tackle Company.
Maple sugaring is time consuming and not terribly productive, so those who need a quick fix of syrup with their pancakes, waffles or French toast, should probably stick with the status quo provided by Mrs. Butterworth’s or Aunt Jemima’s brands.
But there are other benefits to be realized by tapping big-leaf maple trees when the “weather gets good for it,” which, according to Norden is when the weather is sunny and in the 40-degree range with evening temperatures below freezing as the sap stays sluggish in cloudy, rainy weather.
“One of the nice things about working with the sap of our own maples is that we can control how sweet the syrup is,” Norden said.
“The sap is not very sweet and it takes over 1½ gallons to make barely 1¼ cups of moderately sweet syrup. The sap is so clear during the season [it is brown when the season is over] that you could mistake it for tap water and can barely taste it.”
But even if the sugar content is relatively low, Norden advises against boiling the sap down inside your home.
“There is just enough sugar in the steam that it will coat the kitchen wall, growing new forms of life,” he said. “I do it in the barn with the door open and our friends do it on their covered porch.”
Norden also has some recommendations for sap and the product that can be made from half-boiled sap.
“Steaming rice with just the sap give the rice a delicate, interesting flavor,” Norden said. “If you boil it down halfway and freeze it into cubes, it makes bourbon and scotch interesting, too.”
Norden lives in the woods near Quilcene with ample tappable maples on the property. But he suggests taking it slow.
“We have dozens of maples the right size, but our rule is never to tap more than five at a time otherwise we get overwhelmed if the weather becomes just right,” he said. “The best producing trees are young ones about 8-to 10-inches in diameter.”
Perspectives series
Olympic National Park’s Perspectives Winter Speaker Series continues Tuesday with “Geology and Earthquakes on the Olympic Peninsula” by Dann May of Peninsula College.
Evidence reveals a history of a massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the local region in 1700. May will discuss how geological forces have shaped the area’s landscape.
I would imagine a discussion of how geologic forces could further impact us also will be held (i.e. Mount Rainier or Mount Baker erupting, the vast potential for a seismic slip on the Juan de Fuca plate and other anxiety-inducing examples.
The free talks will be at 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month from November through April.
This season’s series will be at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., while the Olympic National Park Visitor Center is renovated.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
