Snowstorms and Maple Syrup

I love this time of year. Everything is covered in thick layers of snow, people seem nicer somehow, and we fill our days playing board games and drinking far too much honey-sweetened tea. We've had some wonderful snowstorms over the last few days that have left us with great mounds of white stuff to build snow forts in. 

As tradition dictates, fresh snow means maple syrup taffy in our family. We have delicious maple syrup that we buy from a local farmer. When I say "delicious", what I really mean is that this maple syrup is above and beyond any I've tried before. It's wonderful - mineraly, subtly sweet, complex. Amazing stuff.

This year we roasted some brazil nuts in a little bit of ghee and sea salt and added them to the taffy. It was divine.

If you want to try it on your own, get yourself a large bowl of clean, fresh snow. Boil up maple syrup until a strip poured on the snow firms up immediately (if it just melts into the snow, it's not ready). Use chopsticks or something similar and wind the taffy around it. The more snow caught up in the taffy, the better. Yum!