The Erie Localvore: Maple Sugaring Season

Erin Phillips

This month, Erin Phillips visited the maple farm of Ed Allgeier at Four Mile Maple to learn about his passion for producing maple syrup from the 600+ trees on his Greene Township property.

It was a sunny, cool day in March when I took a drive to Greene Township with my dad, stepmom, and nephew to tour the set-up of a home-hobbyist-maple-syruper who has turned his passion into a full-on operation. Owner of Four Mile Maple (named because Four Mile Creek runs directly through the property) Ed Allgeier has maple syrup running through his veins: "I've been making maple syrup here for about 30 years, but I've been making it since I was young with my family. It's in my blood."

He purchased his property in 1992 and at the time, it had a decent amount of maple trees on it — enough to satisfy Ed's innate urge to collect sap and boil it down into the liquid gold. He has since planted about 600 more sugar maple trees, connected them all with a series of multicolored tubing, routing the sap into a reverse osmosis filter machine, which then funnels the concentrated sap into an old-timey sugar shack run by a wood-burning stove.

Ed sells his syrup at Urbaniak Brothers Quality Meats and this year's fresh stock should be available after it cures: sometime in April. But, Ed tells me, anyone with a couple of maple trees on their property should feel confident that they can collect enough sap to satisfy their family's maple needs. Tapping and bottling equipment is available affordably and locally at A. Caplan Company in Waterford. All you need are some trees, a little patience, and who knows? Maybe that maple syrup bug will strike you next.

The following recipe is adapted from the cookbook Earth to Table by Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann.

Maple Shoo-fly Pie

Crust Ingredients: Half pie crust recipe of your choosing (I love the King Arthur sourdough discard pie crust recipe, but any buttery shortcrust pastry recipe will work)

Topping Ingredients:

½ cup AP flour

¼ cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup unsalted butter (cold and cut into ½ inch cubes)

Filling Ingredients:

1 cup pure maple syrup (Four Mile has a cinnamon-infused variety that would work beautifully)

½ cup light molasses

¼ cup honey

3 large eggs (beaten)

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Press pie dough into a lightly greased 9-inch pie plate and chill for 20 minutes. Prick chilled shell all over with a fork.

Make the topping: Stir together all dry topping ingredients and cut in the butter with a fork or pastry cutter until it resembles coarse sandy crumbs.

Make the filling: Combine maple syrup, molasses, and honey, stir in beaten eggs, baking soda, and salt. Pour filling into the prepared pie crust and sprinkle with the crumb topping.

Put pie on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until the crust is golden and the topping is crisp (45-50 minutes). Let cool for at least 30 minutes before serving up a slice of this local, maple goodness — topped with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream and some toasted pecans.

Erin Phillips will be highlighting a locally sourced, seasonal ingredient each month. She can be reached (whilst baking and eating) at erin@eriereader.com