Is Global Warming Affecting Pancakes?

Carbon-neutral pancakes? Be forewarned: this is a sappy story.

Unseasonably warmer weather in Montpelier Vermont appears to be confusing the maple trees. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have been giving some thought as to how yours truly can make a sizeable carbon neutral footprint to help minimize and halt the damage to our environment courtesy of global warming and have signed on to all green options including driving fuel efficient vehicles to solar roof panels to replacing all the lighting with efficient bulbs. Not to mention public transportation.

Several years ago, I visited friends in Montpelier for a few days and it is a very beautiful place, with great pancakes. I ate a lot of pancakes, with plenty of fresh, Montpelier maple syrup. We were supposed to do a lot of hiking after our seemingly endless breakfasts but I just remember wanting to lie around like a beached whale and watch cartoons and eat more pancakes. It’s not merely the pancakes that do you in, but when you add all the fresh butter and cream and bacon and sausage and eggs over easy and orange juice – again, all this stuff is farm FRESH -- Let me tell you, I gained a few pounds on that trip. And that syrup…to say it is but a mere cut above Aunt Jemima would not begin to fully describe the abundant aroma, rich flavor and texture.

More about tapping…

Extracting maple syrup or” tapping” (the practice of drilling holes in maple trees to collect some of the world’s finest maple syrup) in the Morse family of Montpelier is about to change and be replaced with a new technology.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17581823/


The old procedure to tap a maple tree is to first drill and then uses a spout and bucket to collect the syrup. Buckets have now been replaced by cutting edge technology using tubes and vacuums. If they use more electricity than the conventional sap drill, might a tapping technologist develop tools that would run on batteries to contribute to the carbon neutral pancake market?

So the next time you’re in the area, visit Montpelier. And make sure to bring your running shoes and above all, try to drive there in a Prius.

-2Truthy