Maple syrup is just for pancakes, right?
Wrong.
Pacific Northwest farmers are now tapping the bigleaf maple, often denigrated as a trash tree, to create what Eliza Nelson, Executive Director of the Oregon Maple Project, calls “the espresso of maple syrups.”
Chefs like Aron Warren are thinking well beyond breakfast foods, using bigleaf maple syrup to braise lamb, glaze carrots, mix mint juleps and impart a complex sweetness to roasted vegetables and fire-grilled chicken.
Traditionally, maple syrup has been produced on the East Coast, where sugar maples produce a light, sweet sap.
But new technology, newly eased regulations and an abundance of Western bigleaf maples have West Coast farmers trying their hand at syrup production, with promising results.
Minerals in Oregon soils, like potassium and calcium, are helping create different and original maple flavor profiles. Connoisseurs are describing the flavors as dark with notes of coffee, earth, wood, molasses and brine.
Farmers like Dan Caldwell are teaming up with scientists like Eric Jones at Oregon State University, to tap unused maples and build artisanal family syrup businesses.