Maple Syrup Snow Candy

Hard to believe, but a little over a week ago we had snow on the ground. Today, it's 66 degrees and windy! Snow never lasts long around here.

Ever since the Munchkin read "Little House in the Big Woods" a couple of years ago, he begs to make maple syrup candy whenever it snows (it's snowed 3 times this winter; that's a lot for us!) and this time I finally gave in. Needless to say, he was thrilled. And when the other two heard "candy" they were thrilled too!

I found some instructions on Shelterrific that looked good, and off we went. I got the syrup to boiling, and Munchkin got his coat on and waited {im}patiently by the back door to collect the snow.

I did make one mistake. I didn't let the syrup cook long enough. I didn't take the time to make sure it had gotten to the hard ball stage before taking it off, and in fact I'm pretty sure it didn't even make it to soft ball stage. I should've checked, because while the end result tasted good, and the kids certainly had fun, what we had wasn't technically candy. What we wound up with was more like a maple syrup snow cone! I'll know next time, though I need to restock my maple syrup supply.
Try it some time. It's really not that hard, and it will thrill young and old alike!
Enjoy! :)

P.S. Have you noticed the new look of the blog? I decided it was time for a change. Although I've always loved the old design, there were a few things that I also always wanted to change: I thought the background would be better if it was white or a lighter color, and the lines on the background sometimes made it hard to read. I don't know how permanent this new look will be, but it will be here for a bit, while I work out exactly what I want the blog to look like. :)

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