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 Michigan Land Use Institute, Taste the Local Difference with Ten Dollars, Traverse City, MI
We’ve all heard that if we spend just $10 a week on local farm foods, the economy would gain nearly $5 million in new revenue. But how can we really make that happen?
One group, Taste the Local Difference, out of Traverse City has launched a campaign encouraging participants to sign a pledge to do just that. Even if you don’t live in the five county area this campaign targets, there are some great ideas that we can all use in our own communities.
Some easy ways to spend $10 a week:
• Buying local meat, fish, eggs, and produce from your local grocer, restaurant, or farmer.
• Ordering a glass of local wine, cider or other beverage.
• Ordering a menu item that includes locally grown ingredients at a restaurant.
• Becoming a member of a CSA farm.
• Ordering food for office lunches and parties that includes locally
grown items.
• Purchasing locally grown food products for holiday gifts and entertaining. (Jams, honeys, cheeses, dried cherry mix, salsas, etc.)
• Buying local cream for your daily coffees and local teas that include locally grown herbs and fruit.
Just for fun, keep track of what you spent your designated $10 on each week. Post it on your Facebook page (or ours for that matter!), share it with friends and encourage others to do the same.
If you would like to sign the Taste the Local Difference pledge, find it online at: http://localdifference.org/spend10.asp
 Currey Farms Pure Maple Syrup,
Charlevoix and Fowlerville
This month we spoke to Jan Currey. She and her husband Art are proudly carrying on a five generation tradition of bringing nature’s sweetest treat to the table.
Tell us how you became a maple syrup farmer.
Making maple syrup has been a tradition in my husband’s family for five generations, and Art made it every year while he was growing up in Lapeer County. After we got married in 1978, we began making it each year in Livingston County. In 2005, we moved our operation to the Currey Family Farm in Charlevoix, which Betty and Bob Currey (Art’s parents) established in 1975. Now that we are semi-retired, we move there for two months each year to harvest our crop from the 70 acres of maple woods on the 320 acre farm, where Betty still lives full-time.
Can you give us the basics on how syrup is made?
When the temperatures go from freezing at night to thawing during the day, it’s syrup time! Ingredients: maple trees. Equipment: drills, hammers, spiles and tubing. Process: drill a hole (tap) in the maple tree, hammer in a spile (spigot) and attach tubing. In our operation, we have about 7,500 taps, and 15 miles of tubing carefully connected. The sap flows through the tubing, is pumped into 1,000 gallon collection tanks, filtered, and emptied into our 5’ x 16’ evaporator (pan). We light a fire under the pan with wood from our property, and boil the sap until the water evaporates, and all that is left is the golden, delicious syrup that is one of nature’s finest gifts. We filter the syrup to get rid of any sediment that may have traveled with the sap as it flows from the trees, and then bottle it!
As with all natural crops the weather has a lot to do with your harvest – how do you think this year is looking?
A syrup maker I really respect once said that the only way to predict how a syrup season will be is to wait until it’s over, and see how much you made! Syrup makers watch the weather at least six times a day during the season, but many times, what’s predicted doesn’t happen. We just have to literally “go with the flow.” ☺
How does the consumer know if their syrup is real?
Best way to be sure what is claimed on a food label reflects what’s inside the container is to look at the ingredients. If it’s pure maple syrup, the only ingredient should be maple syrup. For some of us who bottle our own, we don’t even list ingredients, since our product is advertised as pure maple syrup. We are required by the USDA to have contact information on every label, so consumers could always call or contact the person who made the syrup, and ask for themselves.
Best things to do with maple syrup?
Of course, the best known use is on breakfast foods like pancakes, waffles or french toast. In our family, we like to put fresh fruit on top of the food, and then drizzle the syrup over the top. There are so many other ways to use maple syrup though! It makes a nice glaze for meats, salmon, or cooked carrots, and can be substituted in any recipe that calls for brown sugar (with a little adjustment if it’s a baked product). Our family favorite is to drizzle it over vanilla, golden vanilla, or butter pecan ice cream. Mmmmmm…makes me hungry just to think of it!!
Where can customers find your syrup?
We have a website: www.curreyfarms.com, and customers can either order off the site, or find locations where it is sold. Since we make syrup in Charlevoix, but live most of the year in Fowlerville (near Lansing), we provide options. And if you can catch us on the farm in Charlevoix, or at home, we’re happy to sell it right from our back door too!
Anything else you want to share or discuss?
We want to be sure consumers understand there are different grades of maple syrup. The original grading system was established by Vermont, and all U.S. and Canadian producers have followed it ever since. Here are the current grades that are available:
Grade A Light Amber (called “fancy” in Vermont), Grade A Medium Amber, Grade A Dark Amber, and Grade B. As you go from Grade A light to Grade B, the syrup gets darker in color, and stronger in flavor. We like to give our customers a chance to ask for what they like best. We never know how much of each grade we will have each year. We don’t do anything different: it all depends on the weather, and what the trees yield. Many people ask us which is best. We smile, because it’s really up to each individual. And we think they’re ALL good!
– Thanks Jan!
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