In Childcraft book 8: About Us (1986) edition, pg82, there’s a photo with the caption “In Vermont, “Sugaring Off” means pouring syrup on snow and eat it with doughnuts and pickles.” It intrigued me as a little kid and I just rediscovered the book. Do kids still do this in Vermont or elsewhere in North America? The photograph looks to be from the 1970’s. Has anyone here ever done it?
Looks popular in Canada.
Yes, but it is not syrup it’s toffee (“tire”) which congeal in contact with the snow. And I never saw it eaten with pickles, it is usually eaten on a stick.
Sugaring off is the term used to describe the whole going-to-the-sugar-shack event, but also specifically the eating of maple toffee off of snow.
From the last couple times I’ve gone, a visit to the sugar shack often involves running around in the trees, tasting the sap directly from trees (the place I go to has a pipe system, but they’ve left a few old-fashioned bucketsout for this specifically), visiting the boiler room where the sap is evaporated into syrup and into the toffee, and then grabbing a popsicle stick and going out to the lines of snow to pour the toffee on and roll it onto the stickin order to eat it. Adding peanuts, raisins or other things isn’t unheard of, but I have never, ever seen pickles at a sugar shack, or even heard of pickles in relation to maple syrup.
Now I want maple syrup! I can’t wait to get home; I have a brand new can waiting for me in the pantry!
Pointless trivia:
In Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder describes a “sugaring off” dance at her grandparents’ house (in Wisconsin). Every family member gathered at the house and helped gather the syrup, then brought it to the house, where the grandmother boiled it in a huge vat/kettle sort of thing. Everyone danced and ate during the process. IIRC, once the syrup “grained,” everyone ran forward with their pails so they could each have their own portion of the maple syrup and sugar.
The kids, meanwhile, were each issued “patty pans” or small cups so they could gather snow and make candy.
/end pointless trivia.
When I was a kid I read about that in Little House in the Big Woods and tried it. It does not work with Mrs. Butterworth.
It snowed!!! this past February. We tried it with real syrup. Doesn’t work but it still tasted good. (We then looked it up and found out we were doing the wrong thing anyway.)
Growing up in Vermont, and a fresh snowfall, we would put the snow in a deep dish pan, heat maple syrup on the stove (to a medium temperature) and poor it on the snow (less than a tablespoon). It would congeal almost immediately.
We called it “Sugar on Snow”, and it is some of the fondest memories of my childhood. Never ate it with pickles or donuts though.
IIRC, it worked best with the light fluffy snow of January rather than the dense heavy snow of March which is the primary month when maple syrup is manufactured.
I was born in Burlington <it was the closest hospital to Charlotte>, and I do remember the boiling sap cauldron. I also remember eating maple syrup on snow a LOT, but not while it was being boiled down, just later on, a normal, once a week thing. Even after we moved to Chicago, we still did that; my mom was born and raised in Maine, and she wasn’t about to give up maple syrup. 
Heh. Yeah, me too. And it definitely doesn’t work with Mrs. Butterworth and chopped ice cubes.
(It was summer and there was no snow.)
{waves to fellow Vermonter} I wasn’t born in Vermont, but that is where my roots are. former Eastern Franklin County resident (near Jay Peak). I have traveled through Charlotte (Rt 7) commuting from Central NY State.
It’s a iffy thing. About half the time you get taffy and the other half you get a bunch of watery syrup.
And pickles? Who the heck eats pickles and syrup?
You guys don’t bring it to a boil? I thought that was a requirement? Sure as heck works for me, and I made it a number of times this year. Thank god I’ve got family in VT from whom comes my supply of the “real stuff”.
And we always called it “Sugaree”. I don’t know why. My family is all from the southeast corner of VT and northwest corner of MA.
Don’t pour maple syrup on the yellow snow.
::d&r::
Oh, hell, yes. The last time I saw this personally was just a few years back at an outdoor flea market, boiled maple syrup poured across snow, then twirled on wooden sticks as it semi-solidifies…
It’s diaberrific!
We carefully took some snow from the top of a car to make sure it was unadulterated. We are not snow experts. This snowfall I made my first ever snowman that you make by rolling snow together. I am 30.
It was the pickle aspect I found most perplexing. I’ve found at least one reference online to people eating pickles with it.
From this blog post about sugaring off: “I had always wondered about the custom of serving pickles at a sugaring off party. Now I know why. The “Sugar on Snow” is SO rich and sweet, the pickle cuts through that sweetness allowing you to escape the incredibly sweet aftertaste you will be left with, sans pickle.”
Heh, those of us who grew up on the stuff want that sweet aftertaste! Once you get rid of it, you want to go back for more maple taffy anyways!
Is the doughnut reference from the same source? I’m wondering if there is some confusion with the existence of maple-glazed doughnuts (of Tim Hortons fame)?
Although there are a lot of recipes which call for maple syrup, and you’ll often find it as an ingredient added to beans, bacon, desserts of all kinds, ham, duck, etc (I’m not the cook in the family!)
I arrived in the UK with 2 cans of syrup, but they were for a friend and she has them now. I should make her come back and give me some!
Most American children don’t do this. There are a few small demonstration events about making maple syrup after collecting sap. The event I know of in Wisconsin didn’t even have sap flowing, because it had already warmed up too much this year. People could see spoiled sap in buckets left on the trees from the week before.
I’ll scan the picture when I get a chance. It shows the snow and the syrup on these big pans and a plate of pickles and another of doughnuts.
I did this as a child in North Carolina every time it snowed. My Mom brought the technique with her when she moved south.