Lindsey: In this episode of The Farmer and The Foodie.

Nace: Welcome to South 4 Farms.

This is where all the magic happens.

Lindsey: Maple syrup doesn't just have to be sweet.

It can be used in savory applications too.

Oh, gosh, it smells incredible.

You can smell the maple.

Maggie: I'm Maggie Keith and I'm the Farmer.

Lindsey: And I'm Lindsay McClave and I'm the Foodie and this is?

- The Farmer.

- And The Foodie.

Voiceover: Funding for this program is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

[music playing] Maggie and I are here at South 4 Farms áin Scottsville, Kentucky today áand we're going to tap some maple trees for syrup.

áYeah, I'm really excited.

I've never done this before.

We have a lot of maples on my farm, so maybe I'll try a little something out when we get home.

Absolutely, and I think, I generally think of, you know, like Vermont for maple syrup, but it's right here in Kentucky and we've got -- you can already see there's quite an operation going here.

So, we're going to meet Nace who's going to take us through what he's designed and been crafting and passionate about for several years now.

[music playing] So, each year when we go to tap, we find the old tap holes that are healed up.

When we pull the tap, the sap actually turns like a jelly and then it'll turn, áit looks like a wooden dowel that you can drive in there.

áIt'll just harden up.

áSo, you have to be at least six inches up and down or two inches side to side.

So, we'll tap right here.

You go in about an inch and a half deep and pull it out.

You can let it run while you pull it out, -that's fine too.

-Oh.

I don't drill much in my life.

There we go.

So, I got these on vacuum - and then you just tap that in -Maggie: Okay.

until the hammer bounces back.

That's why they call it tap because if you pop it in there too hard, it'll actually split the tree.

The sap has natural bacteria in it.

That's what caramelizes, gives it the color, adds to the flavor.

And it's also that bacteria is what heals the tree when a woodpecker or some nut like me drills a hole in it.

So, that's what we do and we do that 350 more times right here.

-Maggie: Wow.

-Nace: And I tap every tree I can find.

And so the vacuum, like, sucks it out or what is going on there?

It helps keep the tap hole clean and that way they won't heal over until the buds pop out.

Once the buds pop out in late spring, the sap changes from sugar to starch and you just can't even make syrup.

Lindsey: When do you start tapping?

Nace Taylor: I have tapped as early as the middle of November and as late as the end of February because down here in Southern Kentucky, you just got to watch your weather like a hawk.

Lindsey: How much sap would come from this tree?

You get about a gallon of sap per tap on a good day when you've had a 20 degree night, a 40 degree day.

And then once it, it'll run for three or four days until it dries up around the tap hole.

Then you need another freeze to swell the sap up inside the sap wood inside the tree.

It'll swell it up around there like an ice cube.

And then when you have a thaw, it gets up 40 degrees, the tree thaws out.

It'll run until it dries it.

So, it acts like a pump.

It's just sap.

It's like water.

It takes 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup.

Maggie: Wow.

When you were looking at this farm, like, were you thinking maple syrup?

Nace: Nope.

I lived here for 11 years before I knew there was a maple tree on it.

I actually tapped this tree first, set a bucket here, two taps and I got five gallons of sap.

It took six hours of boiling a half a tank of propane.

I had 12 ounces of syrup and I was hooked and then this happened.

-Maggie: Yeah.

Yeah.

-Lindsey: Yeah.

Nace: So, it's been an adventure.

My wife has been such a blessing to me.

She's enabled me to do more than I ever thought I could.

-Oh, that's nice.

-And she even helps me -run tubing.

-Yeah.

We run the high tension wire around the tree and get it good and tight and then we just cable tie the tubing to it.

- This is gravity and vacuum -Maggie: Okay.

Okay.

to get it down into the pump house.

Lindsey: Well, let's go check the pump house out.

I'm really curious to see the rest of the operation here.

All right, just watch your step.

-All right.

-Okay.

[music playing] Come on into the pump house.

-Used to be the sugar shack.

-Oh my goodness.

And I had to rearrange things but I got a 400 gallon milk tank open top and you can look in and see I've got some ready to be transferred up.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-Whoo!

When I got the vacuum on it pulls the sap into the releaser that'll fill up and then the float will switch the vacuum around and dump the sap into here.

And when the float comes back down, it puts a vacuum back on it and it starts pulling the sap back in.

- All the taps feed into here?

-Nace: Yes.

Lindsey: And then what do they do once they get here?

Does it age here?

Do you, like, how does-- what happens?

It's like a milk, it will spoil.

So, I have to cook it down as quick as I can.

So, to get it up the hill, I've still got the vacuum pulling.

I turn the pump on with the vacuum and the transfer pump, I can suck this tank dry and fill up the tank, the head tank in the sugar shack.

I hear like a little dripping and I see their sap in there.

Is that sap actively coming right now from the trees?

Nace: Yes, that's actual sap just dripping in probably 70 gallons of sap.

And so, this is clear and it doesn't really seem to have much of a smell.

-So, at what point does it -Yeah.

-transform to be brown?

-When you start cooking it now.

-Okay.

-The first time I boiled any, it was boiling about an hour and it started smelling like a nasty blue cotton candy and I was concerned what kind of tree I tapped.

So, I just kept boiling and it finally starts getting that amber color and starts getting that maple smell.

And what I think something I'm used to seeing like on a bottle in the store of maple syrup is grade A or like the different qualifications.

What does that mean?

And how is that?

It's all grade A up until it gets so dark and nasty they call it grade B -or commercial grade.

-Okay.

Yeah, you start out with golden delicate, it has a very delicate flavor but it just changes each boil as the season runs.

So, does this taste like anything this clear sap?

You can get a slight -hint of sugar.

- Okay.

There's a little bit of sweetness to it.

So, this, you're going to turn the pump on and we're going to send everything in here back up to the sugar shack.

-Up the hill.

-All right.

[machine whirring] Lindsey: So, Nace you call this the sugar shack.

Is that right?

Yes.

That's what they call it up north.

And it's a special building to get the steam out because before I ever started doing it, I read about it and they said do not boil it inside the house unless you want to replace all the wallpaper because there's so much steam, it will steam it off because you're driving off the water to condense it down to syrup.

So, if you start with 40 gallons on your stove, your steam hood can't keep up with it.

So, you're driving off 39 gallons of water and the remaining gallon is your syrup.

-Yes.

-Wow, getting new wallpaper in the meantime too, if you're doing that.

So, we will not try this at home, but we will be happy to learn from you.

Nace: And now once I fire this up, it'll take about five hours before you can get it to the right temperature.

About 1800 degrees to where you can draw off.

Maggie: And can you literally like see it changing?

Nace: Yes, you can see the gradient change from pan to pan.

As it cooks down, it pushes the heavier near syrup until it gets up here.

I have these thermometers, I set it at 0 for boiling water and then when it gets near 7, I draw it off, put it in that pan and finish it and go straight to bottling.

- And you can see -Maggie: Yeah.

Nace: this is why I have to keep the doors and windows open until I get a steam hood to get it out to copper vent.

So, after I get the syrup cooked up to 22 to 24 degrees over boiling, I put it in a water bath and cool it below 80 degrees.

A water bath stops the cooking and when it gets cool, it thickens up just a little bit.

So, you can only stir about a quart by hand.

-Maggie: So, thick.

-Lindsey: Look at that.

Nace: But this candy cream machine is water jacketed and it has a heating element.

I can keep it about 180 degrees to make the candy.

I can heat it up to over 200.

The bottle of syrup or my Maple Orange and Maple Citrus vinaigrette.

Maggie: I'm very impressed with the brute strength it takes.

Lindsey: I'm thinking about the cleaning.

Maggie: Yeah.

Okay, Nace, so this is our maple butter, -right?

Okay.

-Nace: Yes.

The machine does its job and gets some maple butter stirred up to where it's spread below nice and creamy and smooth.

I just crack this open and fill it up to six ounces.

[music playing] All right.

Finally, the time has arrived.

I've been waiting for this.

So, thank you so much for welcoming us here and showing us everything you've done you've created.

I mean, it's really amazing and like literally to get to taste this, the fruits of your labor.

We are so excited and you have some ham for us too.

Nace: I have got maple thyme glazed ham.

Maggie: So, you like to try a little sweet and a little savory version?

Nace: Yeah, that's why I wrote the cookbook.

So, what are some of the savory dishes that you love other than this ham, of course?

Well, Duck a l'Orange is my favorite.

Getting that skin good and crispy with that savory maple orange sauce.

And tell me what you did with the ham here, you said maple thyme, right?

Any time is maple thyme and I just make up a glaze and I usually get a spiral cut ham.

Then I work the glaze down in between all the slices and then bring it back up and get it really good and smoking.

Lindsey: You definitely get the maple sweetness, but it's not like cloying or overwhelming.

It's that great salty sweet balance, which I think people need to not be shy of when it comes to like cooking with maple syrup.

But I mean, I'm going to be honest, the star of the show is this maple butter.

I'm curious, you know, again, as we mentioned earlier on, people think maple syrup, they usually think, New England, Vermont, you know, Northern States.

Have you had people from that area come here and taste your syrup?

Yeah, and a lot of them say, oh, it's nothing better than New York syrup.

Nothing better than Maine or, yeah, ours is the best in Vermont.

And then they taste mine and they say you're doing well.

And I've had people say, oh, yeah, my grandparents made this and I hadn't had it since I was a kid and they'll taste it and say, this reminds me of my childhood, -and that makes you feel good.

-Yes.

That's good a compliment as you can receive.

We would love to swing by your store and grab a few things for the way home because we're going to, we've been so inspired.

We're going to cook up some maple infused goodness at my house and we just appreciate you having us out.

Well, I thank you so much for thinking of me and coming down and it's been a blast.

I've enjoyed having you all so much.

Well, this was such an amazing experience and I think what I appreciate the most is I just can't get over when you see something so simple.

Like literally sap from a tree, created that butter for example.

And there, I mean, that was it.

Yeah, and I'm so impressed with all of the engineering, the tubing, the gravity fed, the vacuum.

I mean, a lot goes into this and I just kept thinking what a full circle this is for farmers to have this sort of off season product of maple syrup.

Yeah, it was much more complicated and also as simple as I expected it to be.

-So... -Yeah.

Yeah.

Visiting Nace at South 4 was such a treat.

áI really wanted to make sure áwe celebrated and treated the maple syrup áwith as much respect and dignity as he does.

And really it's the star of the show for our meal today if you're ready.

-I'm so ready.

-Okay.

Okay.

So, pancakes or what...?

Well, I mean, that will forever and always be my favorite thing to do with this syrup, but it doesn't have to always be sweet.

So, that was something I was trying to keep in mind.

So, we're going to make a maple mustard vinaigrette and that's going to serve two purposes for us today.

It's going to go over a really nice piece of salmon that we're going to roast.

Such a simple recipe, but like so much flavor.

And then we're going to use that same vinaigrette to make a winter salad and we're going to make a salad that celebrates what we have in the winter to work with.

-Oh, great.

-So, yes, á but the piece de resistance of our meal today á will be this Crème Brulee with maple syrup.

So, we need to start that first because it does need to go in the oven for a little bit.

If you want to start, first thing we need to do is just season this cream.

So, if you just want to pour the cream in this pot, á that's about two cups.

á- So thick and beautiful.

-Lindsey: I know.

Some recipes call, like to cut it with milk.

I'm like we're not kidding anybody here.

And then we're going to add the maple syrup.

So, I like about half a cup here.

Maybe two thirds cup.

What I do is just pour it.

- Just finish the bottle.

-Lindsey: I know we'll just finish the bottle and we'll do a little taste and if we think it needs more, we will have more.

I'm just using half a vanilla bean because I really don't want to overpower the maple syrup.

You need to split it open in inside, this is so much fun are all these tiny little vanilla bean seeds.

-I can smell it too.

-I know.

Right, it smells so good.

So, we'll just kind of put that on the side of the pot and then we'll do a little bit more and then I always just take the vanilla bean -and throw that in there too.

-Yes.

Yes.

The pod can steep.

So, we are going to give this a nice whisk -and just kind of do that.

-Okay.

And then let's take a quick taste and just see if we get enough maple syrup.

Cream and maple syrup and vanilla.

What could be better?

I think we need a little maple syrup.

-Me too.

-Yes.

-I can really taste the vanilla -Yes.

-So, that makes me feel like-- -There you go, exacty.

We need the maple syrup.

We could measure or we could just be decadent and just let it go.

There you go.

All right, we're just going to warm it till it's nice and steamy.

You don't want it to boil or anything like that.

It just really lets the flavors come together.

Okay.

so, our cream and maple syrup have steeped, it's warm.

It almost has like a little burnt sugar smell going on, -which is like really good.

-I got that.

That's a good thing.

So, first we need to make the custard.

So, we are going to slowly incorporate the maple syrup and cream into our egg yolks that just have a little bit of salt in them.

So, I'm going to whisk these eggs up first.

Now, if you could help me by slowly pouring in.

So, what we're going to do, it's called tempering.

So, we're going to at first just pour a little bit in.

I'm going to whisk quickly.

What we don't want to do is scramble the eggs.

So, now stop for a second and I'm just going to let the egg yolks thin out and get used to that warm cream.

Okay.

Great.

-Okay, we are ready.

-And now, we're going to do the rest, yes, so it's a nice steady stream.

We're going to make sure we don't have any overly, you know, curdled egg bits or anything.

This is my double strainer.

It's called a Chinois but any just mesh strainer will do the job for you here.

When doing Crème Brulee I really think a low flat dish.

I mean, when you see this dish, you think Crème Brulee, right?

And you want like a long sort of thin surface.

So, underneath it's thin, the custard is going to cook nice and evenly and that gives us a lot more surface area for that crunchy glass top we're going to create.

And to ensure these cook really nicely and evenly we're going to cook them in a water bath.

You want some sort of, you know, I'm using just a baking dish here.

Anything that will fit your Crème Brulee dishes and then you want to pour the water so it comes just about halfway up the side of the dish.

And you really want to be careful to not get water inside the Crème Brulee, there's no splashing.

So, that is why a tea kettle helps do that job that much better for you and steady hands to transfer to the oven.

It's going to bake at 300 for, I mean, really about like it depends on the size of your ramekins.

These are about 4 ounce ramekins.

So they're a little bit on the small side.

So, this might be done as early as 45 minutes, but it might take 60 minutes a little over an hour.

You're looking for the edges of the custard to be set and then they jiggle just a little bit when you seems.

So, they're not firm completely, but they're definitely -not so liquid, they're set -Yes.

and then we want to make sure they are chilled and fully cool at room temperature before we get to the most fun part, which is adding the Crème Brulee top.

[music playing] á We are going to use our vinaigrette á that we're making on both the salmon and on our salad.

So, I feel like it's a really good, smart, quick, versatile vinaigrette to make and it's going to be the anchor for our dinner and it's sort of like, think, you know, honey mustard, but like maple mustard.

So, I love that combination of that mustard has that sort of, you know, funky Dijon flavor mixed with the sweet richness of the maple syrup.

So, here we're going to just combine, I like to use both Dijon mustard for the flavor and then I do like to add equal parts of that and then some stone ground mustard.

-For that texture.

-- Exactly.

Yes.

Exactly, and it has a Dijon like flavor, but it is sort of unique in its own.

So, building a lot of unique flavor notes there.

Then we are going to add about two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.

Want to make sure we have that nice classic vinegar bite that you get in a vinaigrette but the apple kind of keeps with the sweetness to match our maple syrup.

And so, we're going to do about a quarter cup of maple syrup and this is going to make a fair amount of vinaigrette.

But again, we're using it throughout our meal.

So, we're going to bake our salmon in it because I want that maple syrup flavor to come through.

Maggie: Don't get a sticky spoon.

All right.

Delicious.

And then if you want to add just a pinch of red pepper flakes, thinking about balance of flavor here.

So, we've got sort of that Dijon vinegary bite.

We've got nice acid, we've got sweetness and now we're going to have just a pinch of heat and we certainly don't want to forget our salt.

A few cracks of fresh ground pepper.

- So, if you want to make -Maggie: Yeah.

this a double team, so you'll do some good whisking.

I add anywhere from a quarter cup to a half a cup of olive oil.

It really just depends.

So, we want to make sure we don't dilute the flavor too much, so we'll stop here and we'll just do a quick taste.

So taste, -tell me what you think.

-Okay.

It's very maple-y and it has a really nice bite to it.

I love the apple cider vinegar.

Yeah, you get that too.

So, we could add maybe just a little bit more olive oil for the salad.

That might be like a little punchy.

So, we're going to do just a touch more olive oil.

We'll whisk that last little bit in because you want to see the emulsification happen.

And that's part of what Dijon Mustard does too.

It brings the dressing together adds like sort of that creamy vibe.

Okay.

Let's set this off to the side, if you want to bring those salmon fillets -up here for us.

-Yes.

-Maggie: Beautiful.

- Yes, aren't they beautiful?

So, what I'm going to do just a little bit of salt and pepper.

They're going to get some seasoning from the vinaigrette, but we want to make sure every bite has plenty of well seasoned flavor.

This meal is all about texture too.

So, the salmon, the vinaigrette over it is going to make sure it tastes really nice and moist and tender.

We're going to cook it at 425.

So, a little bit of a high heat and depending on the thickness of your salmon, I like my salmon at about a medium.

So, it's like a little lightly more pink in the middle.

But you're going to cook it from 12 to maybe 18 minutes tops.

It's going to be perfectly cooked, not at all dry.

It's just like and it's so easy.

-It's so simple.

-Maggie: Yes.

So, we're going to bake it like that.

So, you've got this nice creamy really silky salmon on top of this salad that you'll see when we bring it out.

It's just full of all different textures and flavors.

So, we are going to spoon about half of the vinaigrette over the salmon.

What I want to make sure here I'm careful of is to not let my spoon touch the salmon and then into the vinaigrette because we are using this in another application.

We are going to pop this in the oven again for about probably 14, 15 minutes and it will come out ready to go.

And in the meantime, let's get our salad going.

Maggie: Great.

áLindsey: I think all of us are guilty á of thinking in the winter that we can't eat local á and that's definitely not the case.

This salad is basically celebrating everything that they have fresh from the ground.

We've got some green onions, they had some kale, some spinach, some parsley and cilantro.

So, I do like throwing tender greens into my salad sometimes.

And the idea here is just to build flavor and texture.

So, in keeping with that, we're going to add a little bit of blue cheese, some toasted walnuts, some candied cranberries.

They also had a daikon in there.

And the daikon though is spicy.

So, I like the idea of grating it.

Maggie: It's almost like a cracked pepper straight on your salad.

Lindsey: I'm so glad we're having - a wintery green meal -Maggie: Yes.

Lindsey: because I feel like that is definitely something people don't catch on to in the winter.

Yeah, we're just going to pile everything in the middle here from Valley Spirit.

We got this beautiful spinach, - ton kale.

-Maggie: Beautiful.

Lindsey: Speaking of texture and flavor, we're going to do some walnuts.

These are toasted.

I'm a big fan of blue cheese and I love the sort of funkiness of blue cheese.

It's a little bit creamy and then we'll add our cranberries here just a little bit of tart sweetness compared to our maple sweetness.

So, I usually just go one into the other and just, this is a big old salad, but it is full of goodness for us.

[music playing] Our salmon is out of the oven.

It smells so good.

If I do say so myself, I think you can really smell the maple syrup.

The Dijon.

Let's just add our vinaigrette.

I'm going to go and toss to make sure we don't overdress.

Yes.

So, now we're just going to take our salmon and transfer it.

Maggie: This is always the nerve wracking part.

Lindsey: Yes, and I love the little bit áof the extra dressing that we have here á in the bottom will be for a great drizzle.

I'm so excited to taste.

It smells and looks so good.

-Maggie: Yes.

-Lindsey: Gosh.

I just can't get over how creamy the salmon stays and it's like infused with the dressing and I don't know.

This is like one of my favorite ways to cook fish.

It's so simple.

It's like foolproof and a great way to like double purpose.

Maggie: Yeah.

And with this crunch.

-Lindsey: Oh, wow.

-Maggie: Yep.

The green onion is so good in there I think.

I personally love that onion pop but the green onion allows it to not be too overwhelming.

I get a little bit of spice at the end from the daikon and just so much texture and of course maple syrup.

Not too sweet, not coin, but there and speaking of that, I know we're having our savory, but I really do want our sweet.

So, what do you say to like torching one of the Crème Brulees real quick -for a little appetizer.

-Oh, let's taste it out.

-Yes.

-All right.

Fantastic.

We definitely need to practice.

Let's do it.

I think so too.

All right, here is one, it is cooled from after coming out of the oven.

-Perfect.

-And all we need to do is add our perfect little sugar on the top and I'm really just going for like an even browning as best I can.

So, it takes like a little bit of patience but it's just too much fun.

I mean, as you see it start to color and bubble.

That is like magic.

Lindsey: I wonder who thought to do this first, you know, too much fun.

[music playing] Oh, gosh, it smells incredible.

-You can smell the maple.

-Yeah.

It's not just sugar you're smelling.

-All right.

Are we ready?

-Yes, I'm ready to taste.

Okay, so, we're going to listen for that telltale glass shattering what makes Crème Brulee so wonderful.

Maggie: I love it.

Lindsey: All right.

So, I just love that.

I mean, the textures of that alone are just so good.

It's so decadent.

But not too overwhelming sweet.

-That's the joy of maple syrup.

-Lindsey: Yeah.

Well, and I mean really other than the maple syrup, which definitely has plenty of natural sugar, but it's just literally the sap -that came out of that tree.

-Yeah.

The sugar is just the sugar on top.

We didn't add any other sugar into this dish, which I love but, gosh, that's good.

Okay, I can't wait to finish it but let's enjoy this amazing salmon dinner we have.

And, yeah, I'm just so thrilled that we got to experience one of Kentucky's many, many bounties, which is maple syrup.

And who knew we were doing that right here in Kentucky.

Yeah, it's incredible.

We can really eat the entire meal from our home.

Absolutely.

So, thanks to South 4 and Nace for teaching us all about maple syrup - and, yeah, let's go dig in.

- Yeah.

Maggie: Great.

[music playing] Voiceover: Funding for this program is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.