Nixon: Now More Than Ever

Maple Syrup Disease or Flavor Overdose?

Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 3:20 am (Purely Random)

Is it possible to overdose on flavored oatmeal? Is there such thing as MSD (maple syrup disease)? I enjoy a nice hot bowl of instant oatmeal almost daily. Right now I’m eating the Quaker Weight Control Maple and Brown Sugar flavor. I love the weight control variety for all the protein and fiber it gives you. However, today it has quite possibly gone above and beyond the call of duty. Maybe it’s the oatmeal…or maybe I’m just too sweet…

My husband noticed this evening that my hands smelled of maple syrup. And he’s right. They really do. You’d think I’d just come in from tapping a tree in our backyard. Curious as to what caused the smell I washed my hands with a scented soap several times over the course of the night. At first smell it seemed successful. I thought perhaps I’d just touched the syrup bottle in the fridge. However, after a little bit of time my maple ‘perfume’ would once again appear. It’s been about 9 hours since the initial discovery. So, I’m left wondering, do I need to seek medical attention or call Ripley’s? Is there any way I can make money off this? Could this bring me my 15 minutes of fame?

With so many questions roaming through my mind I find that it is 3am and I am still up and still smelling my hands every 3 minutes. It’s a pleasant smell really, just unexpected. I’m thinking it would be perfect for the Bath & Body Works fall 2007 line. I worked there in college and I strongly feel like this is a scent the consumers would love. It might even become a new classic. I can already see (and smell using my hands) all the lotions, scrubs, candles, and wallflowers in this new scent…of course, we’ll need a lip balm in it as well. Hmmm…Marvelous Maple, Maple Delight, Morning Maple…the name possibilities are endless.

After smelling my hands a few more times I think I am going to go lay down, one hand under my pillow, one under my cheek and dream of a simple life living in the northwest harvesting that sweet syrup. Oh…and just so you know…most syrup that you buy in stores is NOT real maple syrup. (You will notice a price difference for the real thing.) It’s usually just flavored corn syrup. Those tricksters! So if you’ve never had genuine maple syrup go buy some or go to the Cracker Barrel and use theirs. It really is quite spectacular.

Here’s some fun maple syrup facts for you:

• It takes 30-50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup
• Maple syrup is boiled even further to produce maple cream, maple sugar, and maple candy.
• It takes one gallon of maple syrup to produce eight pounds of maple candy or sugar
• A gallon of maple syrup weighs 11 pounds
• The sugar content of sap averages 2.5 percent; sugar content of maple syrup is at least 66 percent or more
• Usually a maple tree is at least 30 years old and 12 inches in diameter before it is tapped
• As the tree increases in diameter, more taps can be added – up to a maximum of four taps
• Tapping does no permanent damage and only 10 percent of the sap is collected each year. Many maple trees have been tapped for 150 or more years.
• Each tap will yield an average of 10 gallons of sap per season, producing about one quart of syrup.
• The maple season may last eight to 10 weeks, but sap flow is heaviest for about 10-20 days in the early spring.

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