Truth is, there are many options for making maple candy. But they all share two things in common. Keep reading for the full scoop…

Hi, I’m Michelle. A backyard sugarmaker in New England, and author of Sweet Maple.

Please consider helping me support sugarmaking education worldwide with every purchase of the SoulyRested Swag. You’ll find the latest designs right here (like the one I’m wearing here) .

There are many ways to make this deliciousness

All varieties of maple candy are delicious. And they are all made up of ONE ingredient. Yep, one.

And guess what? You can not only pronounce it, but know exactly where it came from and how good it is for you: 100% maple syrup.

Seriously, there’s no better candy, guys.

This post contains affiliate links. Go here to read the full (ultra fun) legal disclosure about that.

Get the Full Scoop

For the full scoop on the amazing science behind all-natural sugar and all the options and varieties of maple candies you can make, see my book, Sweet Maple.

If you can’t find it at your local book store, great news! You can purchase it right here and still support your local bookstore. (Pretty cool, huh?)

Of course you can grab a copy on Amazon too, if that’s your jam.

If you do grab a copy of my book be sure to go here to claim all the bonuses I’ve gathered for you to say thank you!

How to Make Two Popular Kinds of Maple Candy

I walk you through the details on how to make my two favorite ways to make maple candy in this video:

I call them Maple Stained Glass and Maple Crumbles. My favorite way to use maple candies? I keep them in a jar by my loose leaf teas and use them to sweeten my morning cup of hot tea.

Making maple stained glass hard candy

Making maple crumbles candy

Heat a quart of maple syrup to 244°F in a large pot on the stove.

When it reaches 244°F remove it from the heat and let it cool to 175°F. Beat it with a wooden spoon until it turns a nice cream color, then pour it into greased molds. If you do this just right (which I seldom do, there are just too many variables that have to be perfect) you’ll have a wonderful soft molded candy.

BUT if you let it go slightly above 244 or let it cool to lower than 175 or stir it too long or not long enough you will have a hard sugar that hardens too quickly to pour into molds. Just pour it onto prepared cookie sheets and break it into pieces as it cools.

Store your maple crumbles in a sealed mason jar. I use this lid and jars like these.

Give an amazing gift

I love giving these candies as gifts. I have a page of printable gift cards in my subscriber library if you’d like to have a sweet note to attach to your gifts to let folks know the amazingness you made them and great ways to use the candies. Just subscribe here and print it out right away.

Other Recipes You’ll Love:

• Making Maple Mango Granola
• Making Maple Peanut Butter
• Making Homemade Gatorade
• Making Maple Kombucha
• Making Maple Cream
• Making Maple Sugar

And I list my favorite tools in my homestead kitchen right here.

p.s. Remember, order a copy of my book Sweet Maple for all the details on making the best maple confections and maple-infused baked goods, bread, and even savory meals. Go here for a peak inside, reviews, and all the bonuses.

p.s.s. If you need to order syrup, my friend’s XXL size of maple syrup right here would make lots of wonderful candy, and it’s the best bulk-serving price I’ve found anywhere. Order $50 worth or more & use coupon code SOULYRESTED to enjoy a free tub of maple cotton candy! 

My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 31:14

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

 

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The post How to Make Maple Candy first appeared on Souly Rested.

Okay, I’ll be real. I’ll never be a connoisseur of this miracle called “syrup making.” There’s too much of the miraculous in it, and I’m too full of foibles, to ever get a whole sugaring season perfected. But I’m gonna have a delicious time trying.

If you’re interested in knowing the step-by-step process my family goes through to make our own maple syrup, you’ll definitely want to check out this post.

Or, I bet you’ll love this amazing family recipe for blueberry maple cake that I shared with Melissa K Norris when she featured me on her Pioneering Today podcast recently.

We all perform our best when we’re under pressure.

The New England temperatures the past few days have been heavenly for sugaring. Just the right hint of spring in the air to get the sap as excited as the rest of us during the sunny days, and yet nights well below freezing, to keep the pressure high in the tree’s veins. And we all know (especially those of us full of foibles), when pressure is high we tend to perform our best. Sap is no exception. When we see promise of spring, the cold difficulties seem surmountable and we press on. So does sap.

So we are boiling the watery, clear, liquid gold until we go to bed at night and starting the fire back up in the morning, letting it boil until we’ve processed the last day or two’s worth of sap. When we have enough ready for the final step, we spend an evening making beautiful auburn-hued liquid sugar.

Sap is a gift to savor.

It’s a glorious thing to stumble into the kitchen and be greeted with the morning sun glowing through jars of sweetness we bottled in the late hours of the night before.

Our homemade maple syrup is a testimony to not only our late-night efforts, but more importantly to God’s grace. Yes, maple syrup is a joyous gift from God that He packages in unassuming trees for us to extract and savor. It reminds us of His goodness after a long, dark, difficult season.

So what is Shrove Tuesday?

But back to what I was saying about pancakes. . . It’s really true. There is a day of pancake celebration. Apparently the day does have a fancy moniker–“Shrove Tuesday.” But the verb “to shrive” is so obscure that it seems most people go for the more delicious sounding name. (In case you’re wondering, to shrive means “to present oneself to a priest for confession, penance, and absolution.”)

So even if one does know what “to shrive” means, who would want to think about confessing sins when she could instead just indulge in some gluttony?

From what I’ve gleaned about my new-found reason to celebrate, Shrove Tuesday started in a rather practical way, centuries ago, in England. Apparently rich pancakes were a great meal to have on the last day before Lent. (Well, what the Brits call “pancakes” we on the other side of the pond would call “crepes.”)  Indulging in pancakes would use up the last of the “extravagant” foods that the family was giving up in honor of Lent–you know, all those staples that would never be nonexistent on our homestead for even a day–flour, milk, eggs. . .

Why am I thankful I don’t celebrate Shrove Tuesday?

While I’m thankful that I would never intentionally rid our pantry of those wonderful staples of flour, milk, and eggs, I’m even more thankful that I don’t need to set aside certain days and times to go to a priest and list off my sins.

I mean first of all, I would never physically be capable of making an all-exhaustive list. Not even of the sins I’ve committed just this morning. There’s my worry. My pride. My self-pity. My complaining attitude. My stubbornness. And that was before my feet had hit the floor. Once I actually got out of bed, the list multiplied.

But second of all, any priest I would confess to would have committed sins himself. Most likely before he rose his head from his bed that morning as well.

Instead, I celebrate my brokenness.

Instead, I am so thankful that I can live a life of repentance. Really live it. Daily. Not wallow in it. Not even focus on it. But be aware of my sins and my need of my Savior daily.

Because repentance is a wonderful thing when it walks side-by-side, hand-in-hand with faith. Faith in a high priest who truly understands me, yet has never sinned himself…

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4: 15.

You can bet I won’t be doing this today.

No, I won’t be driving to church today, walking through the heavy, old, white doors, carrying a long list with me, sitting down with my pastor, unrolling my bullet points of indecencies, and painstakingly crossing them off as I embarrassingly admit them to my pastor, beseeching forgiveness. (You’re welcome, Pastor Nate.)

Instead, daily, moment by moment even, I enjoy absolution. I have freedom to take my very next step as a forgiven daughter of a perfect King. Because his Son is my High Priest. And He is my Father. And because I have total confidence, and all-encompassing faith, in His perfect life and completed act on the cross, on a hill called Calvary, thousands of years ago.

AW Toser said it well. “Faith is not a once-done act, but a continuous gaze of the heart at the Triune God.”

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4: 16

Christina Rossetti, a famous British poet, didn’t have the same sense of freedom that I do. As a member of the High Anglican Church, she would have been very familiar with the confession booth on Albany Street in London. But she wrote some sweet little ditties… even one about… wait for it… pancakes! Maybe she penned it one Tuesday in late winter as she was preparing for Lent.

I’m including a little printable of Rossetti’s ditty in case you have a child or grandchild who might like to read, recite, or color it today. I’ll also place it in my subscriber library, where you’ll find lots of great printables for amazing recipes, DIY projects, worksheets for kids, encouraging verses, and eBooks with tasty recipes! If you don’t have your own password, just sign up for my weekly e-newsletter by clicking here (or by typing your email in that box all the way at the end of this post), and I’ll send you the link to the library and your own password right away.

But I am doing this.

I’m linking to the most amazing pancake-related recipe I have ever discovered. (Notice I said “pancake-related.) If you plan on cutting back on decadent food for Lent, this may be your perfect final indulgence. Me, I just have maple syrup on the brain these days, so this cupcake blows my mind. (Yes, I said cupcake.)

Plus, the UK food blogger who shares this amazing recipe for Pancake Cupcakes also gives great insight into Pancake Day (and British “pancakes”), which is kinda fun.

But oh my goodness… Can we just have a moment of silence for the amazingness of these cupcakes! . . .

Never mind. Instead I’m gonna shout out loud, “PANCAKE CUPCAKES!” Pilled high with buttercream frosting and drizzled in–you guessed it–SYRUP. Well, she makes a lemon syrup, but of course, since I have maple syrup on my brain 24/7 these days, I think I’ll make the buttercream icing without the lemon juice and drizzle some maple syrup over the cupcakes.

Heck, maybe we’ll have these babies for breakfast. They are called pancake cupcakes.

“Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth.” Isaiah 54:4

Please follow along!

Please take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested to catch up on a few of my memorable mishaps, discover fascinating things about my centuries-old farmhouse, glean a little parenting/homeschooling insight from this momma who’s been failing at the effort for almost 2 decades, or enjoy the inside scoop on the secrets other legit homesteaders might not tell you.

I hope my focus always encourages you, because simple joys require hard work. Let’s face it, we all need all the encouragement we can get!

As soon as you subscribe (in the box at the end of this post), you’ll have immediate access to my Resource Library, which includes many useful printables, my FREE EBOOKs, and other amazing recipes for things like whoopie pie cookies, maple sap switchel, and another heirloom recipe, from a different grandmom, for a perfect pie crust.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making. Of course, my favorite cast iron pans are there too.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) box below:

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Before you even scroll down and subscribe, I have a free eBook for you that might help your family live a little more simply and use a little less refined sugar. Download Maple Goodness here or just click on the eBook image below. Your family will truly love the Best Ever Maple Scone recipe in this free eBook.

Type your email address in the box below, or click here for the 33-page eBook, A Sweet Taste, and so much more.

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The post Ummmm, Do YOU Know How to Celebrate Pancakes? first appeared on Souly Rested.

I know it’s time for our thankful tree to grace our carriage house walls again.

The signs of pending November are shouting with insistence that I give in and prepare for winter. So many leaves around our homestead have given up their grip on autumn, now offering the chickens a brittle brown carpet to scratch in for their daily treats.

My high-school sweetheart and I have walked the property marking the maples worthy of taping for sap this winter.

The garden is barren, except for lonely bushes of broccoli that are still providing a fresh veggie snack every so often.

And the apples have all been picked.

But it’s more than the signs of a pending November that have me longing for our Family Thankful Tree. Truth is, I’ve felt like I’m more incapable than usual the last few weeks.

For one thing, Scout’s empty field is a continual reminder of my most recent homesteading failure. Our sweet little Holstein is a 10-minute drive down the dirt road, staying in a neighbor’s field, on a 6-week vacation with their bull.

But much heavier on my heart is my distance from my parents as Mom prepares this morning to start her cancer treatment. She’ll go into a doctor’s office and wait for six hours while a conundrum of medicines slowly pump through her veins. She’ll sit and watch the leaves that are blowing outside, the news announcers on a big TV screen who are spewing political analysis, and the others around her who are fighting similar demons; and I will be sitting 400 miles away, completely helpless. But I will also sit with a thankful heart. Yes, I am thankful to serve an omni-potent God who has given me many promises to cling to and words of hope that sustain me. And I am thankful that I have a paper tree, painted on a brown roll of paper, tucked under the eaves of my barn attic, waiting to be filled with reminders of the overwhelming blessings I have to be thankful for.

My friend Tauna, of Proverbial Homemaker, asked me months ago if I would write a post for today about our Family Thankful Tree. How perfectly timed by God’s loving, omniscient hand that this was the very morning I would need a physical, painted reminder of His goodness. So please glance at my post on Proverbial Homemaker, where I’m also sharing a free printable to get your family started on this wonderful Thanksgiving tradition, while I go uncover and hang a joyous paper tree in our carriage house.

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. 2 Chronicles 16:9

UPDATE: I’ve walked through many hard days after writing this original post, but I’ve also been blessed. Blessed to be sitting with my sweet momma in the wee quiet hours of the morning when she met Christ. Blessed to be with my handsome southern-boy Daddy when he stepped into eternity where he’s gardening without weeds and pests today I’m sure.  A few of my experiences I’ve written about here. But through it all I have gone back many times to that verse in 2 Chronicles that I was clinging to in the beginning of this journey of grief. The verse I shared in this post on the day mom started her chemo treatment.

I had no idea when I first shared this verse with you how much I would need to remind myself of it in the months ahead. Remind myself that I could rely on God’s strength and rest in His sovereignty. That would be enough.

If you would like to follow along here and receive my weekly-ish newsletter “Hard work, Simple joys,” you’ll have immediate access to my subscriber library. Please enjoy all the printables under the section of ‘Encouragement”–including a list of 14 verses that gave me great comfort when I was grieving the loss of both parents. Because God is good. All the time.

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera on my Resources page and even purchase your own here.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

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The post Making a Family Thankful Tree first appeared on Souly Rested.

But as the proud parent of an amazing young lady, you also need to make sure to take your daughter to a county fair.

This post contains affiliate links. Go here to read the full (ultra fun) legal disclosure about that.

Raising and homeschooling four daughters over the last two decades, I’ve thought a lot about girls and STEM. We’ve enjoyed wonderful resources, like TechGirlz, when we lived near Philly, and FIRST robotics that made sure my girls knew how awesomely fun Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) can be.

If you’d like to help your daughter build and program a robot you’ll not believe how simple it is with this fun robotics kit that you can even use to compete in FIRST robotics programs.

One daughter started a successful business at the age of 9; another ran a successful blog and helped friends build websites; one’s on her way to becoming an amazing Mechanical Engineer; and one will someday be rescuing marine mammals, once she’s completed her Marine Biology studies. All have spent hundreds of hours teaching middle school girls to program robots, and they know how to write some cool code. So, yes, my girls know STEM.

But my daughters’ love of STEM started long before they even knew what robots were. Their love of STEM started with natural science, with observing caterpillars and daises in our backyard, with meeting goats at a petting zoo. And, of course, agricultural communities–epitomized beautifully at local county fairs–are seeped in natural science. My point? Take your daughter to a local county fair! But just in case you need some convincing…

12 reasons to take your daughter to the fair

1-   She’ll feel like you took her on vacation, but unlike a day at Disney, a day at the fair won’t requiring auctioning off a kidney to afford it.

2-   She’ll see a different kind of princess–one who wears dusty cowboy boots, works hard, and loves every minute of it. One who, instead of waiting to hitch a ride with prince charming, calms and rides her own monstrous steer. Your daughter will learn that while it’s never easy, doing something well that she loves to do, will put her head-and-shoulders (maybe even bovine-head-and-shoulders) above the rest.

3-    She’ll learn that sometimes being in the right place–which for an agriculture-kind-of girl is in the barn–is not synonymous with keeping your nose clean. In fact, some of the best noses are often dirty.

4-    She’ll see real life and learn that sometimes it stinks (quite literally).

5-    But she’ll also learn that life can be sweet, thanks to God-given flavors, if we’re willing to do hard work (like Backyard Maple Syrup making…),  tap into the sweetness (like we’ve learned to do on our New England farm…), and sometimes wait many seasons.

6-    She’ll melt when a hairy boy with big ears flashes his deep-set, wide-spread eyes her way. Don’t worry, you won’t mind cause he’ll be a nice kid, or gentle guy who doesn’t give you any bull.

7-    She’ll understand where real food comes from. And if she understands this as a young girl, she may grow into an amazing homesteader, full of compassionate animal husbandry skills that she shares with her generation, which has long since strayed from such things. This I know first-hand. My then-7-yr old met a calf named Honeypot who melted her little heart at the Fryeburg Fair in Maine many moons ago. (She’s pictured with Honeypot in the pinable image of this post, near the bottom.) She is now a teen who runs a business to pay for her cow, chicken, rabbit, duck, and farming expenses. She is passionate about agriculture, homesteading, and responsible animal husbandry. And it all started in a little cow’s stall, at the fair. Read more about her in this CNN article. Or go here if you’d like some inspiration on how to inspire and encourage your young entrepreneur.

8-    She’ll see that good things are worth the hard work and the most beautiful accessories are not purchased at Kohls.

9-    She’ll appreciate animals and understand they’re more than the sweet eyes and big ears that make her melt. She’ll understand that caring for them is a lifestyle. A hard, messy one that many people seem to love. Because there’s no “behind-the-scenes”at the fair. You see the tired caregivers who fell asleep on a hard barn floor, on top of a  bale of hay. You smell the piles of manure that need to be dealt with daily. And you witness the sweet-tempered cow who follows her beloved girl. A view I now have every day, on our homestead.

10-    She’ll see agile women–of all ages–winning competitions, earning ribbons, and carrying trophies. Not because they walk fashion runways or run long-distance. But because they help others–from animals who need their care, to people who need the food they raise.

11-    She’ll witness the value of teamwork, from two young oxen learning to pull on a yoke, to beautiful draft horses doing amazing work side-by-side.

12-    She’ll learn a new way to define and appreciate “adornment.” Not the latest fashions on supermodels, but worn leather gear on a beautiful team of drafts and the patina on an antique tractor that still does the job, after all these years.

So run, don’t walk, to your local fair with your daughter. She will be a better woman because you did. And there’s no better place, in my opinion, to spark a young lady’s interest in natural science, which may naturally lead her to more STEM involvement. There’s no doubt that this world needs more bright young women who are interested in all areas of STEM, including agriculture.

If you like this post, you might like reading about my own childhood memories of sustainable living and the history of New England Old Home Days.

More Encouragement For You:

Secrets to helping your child become a successful entrepreneur

Help your child start a blog like a pro

Why I only have two goals for my daughters’ education

How to encourage philanthropy in your child

Four questions successful parents ask themselves

Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

 

And please join in on my resource library. I’m often adding sweet bonuses.

The post 12 reasons to take your daughter to the fair first appeared on Souly Rested.

The lake who stretches her clear waters out northward from the base of our slopping property supports an array of wildlife and picture-perfect sunsets…

Our magic little lake attracts majestic morning mist.

The fog surrounds any neighbors we happen upon during an early-morning skiing session.

Numerous aquatic flowers stretch out through the calm summer afternoon ripples while paddle boarders and kayakers enjoy the serenity.

And our little lake is a perfect backdrop for nature study in our homeschool.

But some inhabitants–the loons, whom we learned more about this summer–come in minuscule supply.

In fact, loons define the term “territorial bird” to an extreme. The 400 acres of water that our monochrome feathered friends call “home” each summer–the lake waters that stretches out northward from the base of our driveway–aren’t expansive enough to host more than one pair of loons.

The larger bodies of crisp, cool water that are spotted all across New Hampshire’s Lakes Region can support hundreds of loon pairs. In fact, alcoves on Lake Winnipesaukee alone provide nesting spots for more than 280 of the feathered, polka-dotted couples. By the way, if the curious lake name, a Native American name meaning “beautiful water in a high place,” sounds familiar to you, maybe you’ve watched  What About Bob?

But if you’re a local, you know Bill Murray never filmed anywhere near Winnipesaukee. (And the deception is compounded as you watch the characters refer to the town of “Winnipesaukee” throughout the movie, which of course makes no sense since the name itself means “water,” and everyone knows Winnipesaukee is a big, beautiful lake, not a small town.)  The truth is, the leaves were turning fall colors in New England that year before the producers were ready to start filming the movie, so a lake in Virginia provided the warmer temperatures they needed as a summer backdrop for Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss.

Another nearby New Hampshire lake, Squam, was truly the sight of a classic movie that even starred some of the very breed of birds my daughters and I studied this week. Mind you, you may remember Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn a little more than the loons, but all were important characters in On Golden Pond, filmed on Squam Lake in 1981. Squam doesn’t boast the hundreds of pairs of loons that the giant Winnipesaukee can claim, but it does home a few dozen more pairs than our diminutive lake.

Along with the fact that they’re not good at sharing a small body of water with other loons, these spotted fowl are also not good at walking. God designed their feet placement–far back on their body–to be perfect for swimming, but it happens to be impossible for walking. If loons are ever spotted on dry land, they are seen pushing themselves along on their bellies, which is surely why they were originally called “loons,” meaning “lame.”

But there’s nothing lame about their majestic, dashed and dotted, beauty on a lake.

And there’s nothing lame about nature study in our homeschool–at least not this week. Our local loons gave one daughter plenty of material for a new page in Our Backyard Book. If someone in your family would like to learn more about a bird in your backyard, feel free to enjoy this free printable resource–a Backyard Book page that’s truly for the birds.

Any day now the loons will be heading south, and we will move on to a new page for Our Backyard Book. Then nature study in our homeschool–and our next Backyard Book page–may focus on fisher cats, since my daughters believe a fisher cat was the eerie soloist screaming outside their bedroom window last night.

Be sure to follow along right here, on SoulyRested.com, for more nature study resources!

As soon as you do, you can snag another FREE printable that will get you started on an unbelievably easy, unlimitedly rewarding journey of nature study with a child. And even the least science-oriented parent (or grandparent) ever can dive right in.

And love it.

Really.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. Romans 1:20

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Read More About Nature Study …

How we Create a Family Book About Our Own Backyard

Helping a Child Discover what They’re Passionate About

3 Simple Steps to Get Kids Excited About Nature Study

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Find out why SoulyRested is considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs … year after year.

 

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The post Looney Nature Study first appeared on Souly Rested.