Maple Foods: Not Just Syrup!

(Click here to jump to the recommended song, Maple by Galgox (Googie on YouTube)!)

In New England, maple trees are everywhere. We know them mostly for their sap that’s boiled down into delicious syrup, but they give us other things, too. Yes, other than wood.

In fall they drop their helicopter seeds, and in spring they drop red or green blossoms (depending on the species). Spring is also when the seeds grow into little tree sprouts.

Recently, I’ve figured out how to take advantage of this. The blossoms can be made into tea and the sprouts can be made into… cooked sprouts.

This is a short one. I’m still trying to figure out the Average Joe Rule I talked about in January.

Health and safety disclaimer: I highly recommend you wash anything you find in or on the ground. I mean, I’m pretty sure you do that anyway. 

Also, I only think these are edible because I’ve eaten them and not died. Eat unfamiliar foods at your own discretion.

MAPLE BLOSSOM TEA

If you want maple blossoms, now’s the time to start collecting them. There’s no serious blanket of them in my area yet, but they’re falling. You’d better know sooner than later with these seasonal things.

Unfortunately, maple blossoms fall everywhere. No matter what. So you will find some that are covered in dirt. Not to mention you probably stepped on a bunch, with who-knows-what on your shoes.

Maybe before the blossoms start seriously falling, you could lay down a huge tarp. You still have time.

Fortunately… maple blossoms fall everywhere. On the grass. On dead leaves. On your car. Probably on tarps that were just sitting there anyway. We got a whole bunch on our old deck.

Well okay, it doesn't LOOK like a whole bunch.

I found all the sprouts in about the same area, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

However you find these maple blossoms, you just rinse them off and let them dry. Usually I use a food dehydrator, but these have relatively low water content, so they might only take two days on their own.

That probably sounds like a long time, but I’ve hang-dried mint plants for longer.

This time around- because I’ve made this tea before- I thought I would let my blossoms oxidize for a little bit. That either does nothing, makes it worse or I did it wrong, because… well, they still turned out kinda bland.

I wanted to do this because the blossoms’ tannins taste “green”, like a persimmon’s tannins. When tannins oxidize, they become more like those in black tea. Namely because that’s what happens to black tea.

So, like what I’ve heard about tea leaves, I attempted to bruise the crap out of the flowers and let them sit. And honestly, I don’t think it did anything. Maybe I didn’t let them sit long enough? I don’t know. I did it for two or three days, and it can’t help that I kept introducing new flowers to the mix.

Oh, well.

I’ll try it again, and I’ll post an update on my Facebook when I do. I don’t tend to use the other platforms because they never get any attention. Which I know, self-fulfilling prophecy and all that, but I waste enough energy as-is.

How’s the tea taste?

I’d say pretty good. It’s floral, apple-y, maybe a little honeyish. There’s no sweetness, though, not like sugar-sweetness. The tannins are there, but only enough to provide a dry feeling and not enough to taste bitter. Course, tannins being tannins, the sensation compounds with every sip until you eat a piece of cheese or something.

In layman’s terms, it tastes like dead leaves. At least according to my mom.

I guess I like dead leaves.

I made a couple of four-ounce test brews: one teaspoon of flowers and two teaspoons of flowers. I used boiling water for both.

The water colored immediately. This one you could smell more than you could taste, and there wasn’t much smell or taste. Without COVID.

 

Now this one. This one I like. Gorgeous color, and actually tasteable. Despite all the adjectives I used before, the taste is a little hard to describe. I would say it tastes “round”?

I actually like this stuff. Now, because the test brews were four ounces, you’d have to double them for eight ounces and triple them for twelve. Which means you’d need two tablespoons for a regular mug of tea.

Totally worth it, as far as I’m concerned.

MAPLE SPROUTS

I’ve never really noticed maple sprouts until this year, but once I noticed, I started looking. And once I started looking, I noticed even more.

In fall, you don’t know which seeds are viable unless you crack them open. But in spring, the live ones sprout, so you know which ones are good just by looking.

Wet leaves are a perfect spot to find maple sprouts, because they can sprout without rooting themselves in the dirt. Instead they kebab themselves into the leaves, which are easily removed. The damp environment softens the shells, so they’re easy to remove, too.

They're immediately recognizable by their greenish-white "tails".

I took the sprouts inside, removed the shells, rinsed them off, boiled them and ate them.

And I must say, they taste like real food. They’re green-tasting and a little bitter, like any regular vegetable. They also taste like there’s some modicum of fat in there. I only put salt on these.

You might not like these if you’re sensitive to bitter foods (I’m not- whatta surprise), but still. Like a regular vegetable. That being said, I don’t know what to compare these with.

If you’re allergic to tree nuts, like with acorns, you probably shouldn’t eat these. And again, if you’re not sure, I can’t make you eat anything.

Here's today's recommended song, Maple by Galgox (or Googie on Youtube).

I wanted to use this SO bad for October's Maple post, but it wasn't spooky enough for the Month of The Weird. In fact, I think it's romantic. Perfect for spring, which is maple season anyway.

Stay sexy!