I hope you enjoy! I was a little freaked out about sending breakable things, but everything seemed to arrive ok, phew. BTW, the maple products are a "set", and the chickadee flew in the box and I couldn't get him out, so it really was three items!

ps saw some photos of your kitchen in photobucket -- beautiful countertops!

Very nice theme.

You can never go wrong with sending Maple Syrup or Maple Sugar. Moe would love either on his oatmeal.
Mabeldingeldine, did you make the chickadee? So cute.

I imagine the pancakes will be wonderful with the blueberry syrup. Enjoy.

~Ann

It works for me, I love maple syrup on my oatmeal. I have been on the lookout for affordable maple sugar.

I did visit the Stonewall Kitchen Store when I was Leaf Peeping in Maine. That was fun.

GWlolo, I'm sure you will enjoy your box.

I was just a snoop and wanted to see your countertop. It's beautiful! I love your color choices. Now I have a serious question.......

You have a pic of some backsplash tile I think I could love for my own kitchen. Even though my kitchen is two years old, I still need to have the backsplash tiled. I keep waiting to find a tile that speaks to me. On your photo stream, there is a tile, right after the light pics, that I am dieing to know more about. It's the one with side points. Just the maker is all I need to know. Any info would help.
I'll check back.

Nancy

Ali - oh my god.. How did I live without tasting maple sugar! We just had it for breakfast with some steelcut oatmeal and it is delish! I just saw the link to henbogle on the other Maine thread and spent an happy 30 mins on your blog looking at all the posts. I love it that grains and agrarian traditions are being revitalized all over America. You have put Maine on the map for me. We love to travel and Maine has never been in the list but now it is. I am going to follow your blog now :)

Nancy - is it this tile? this is from Heath tile. I love it too!

Thank you so much for the info, I'm going to look at it.
My cabs are light gray stained white birch with horizontally running wood grain and my counter is a graphite quartz, so this might work.

Nancy

When I was little and we made syrup we loved to pour the hot syrup onto snow. Sticky good deliciousness!

GWlolo, I am so glad you enjoyed the maple sugar! It is a huge treat, especially this time of year. I don't know how many gallons of sap it takes to make sugar, at takes about 40 gallons to make syrup, I will ask my work colleague -- his family made the sugar and syrup.

As for the blog, it is easy to enjoy reading about all that snow from sunny CA! I hope you check it again as gardening season gets underway, it becomes more scenic and interesting. Rather than virtual visiting, you should come to Maine! I would love to play tour guide, and help you avoid the tourist traps and experience the best of Maine :-)

Maple...mmmmm....Great package, Ali (though I sorta like Mabel). A perfect taste of winter.

Love the chickadee...they are my favorite birds. If I stick my arm out the window and sit really still, they'll eat crumbs from my hand.

My dream vacation has always been to go to Maine when the leaves are turning (Leaf Peeping?!) and shop at LL Bean. And see if wild Maine blueberries taste more like wild Idaho huckleberries or farmed Idaho blueberries. (I know that's two different seasons, but after all, it's a dream!)

Maple sugar - I've never ever heard of that, it sounds excellent.

I like seeing the thought that everyone puts into these swaps. All the boxes carry something from the sender's home and local foods and crafts, to a new home on the other side of the continent. Pretty neat.

Mabel- everyone assumes that all of California is sunny. Southern california (LA, San Diego) area is but northern california near San Francisco where I live is quite different. It is quite chilly here right now and in middle of summer it rarely gets very hot. You would be surprised but tomatoes often don't do well here. In a way it is kind of a goldilocks climate.. Not too hot..not too cold. I do wish we had proper seasons though.

Yum, maple sugar, it's delicious stuff and hard to find. I like it nearly as well as I like maple cream. My favorite way to eat oatmeal is drizzled with maple syrup, it just can't get any better. Good choices, Ali.

I spent two separate vacation weeks in Maine, loved it there, one near Bar Harbor and one much further north at Petit Manan in a rental cabin. Eating lobster, watching whales, looking for moose, hiking in Acadia, we had a ball.

Annie

This post was edited by annie1992 on Thu, Feb 21, 13 at 0:10

A warming breakfast of Maine goodies sounds like the perfect winter swap box to me. I've never had maple sugar but I remember having maple candy as a child brought back from someone's trip to Vermont. It was a special treat in Arizona as we were very far away from sugar maples.

I love that sweet little chickadee, too. Nicely done!

Eileen

Best price I have found for maple sugar, add it to your shopping list...

Here is a link that might be useful: Trader Joe's

Yum! Maple Syrup breakfast. I love this box...going now to make some steel cut oats for dessert ;-)

Yet another great batch of pressies! Love the maple sugar. We'd occasionally get the little maple leaves made of maple sugar when I was a kid. They were my Mother's favorite. The pancake mix looks so good too. Everything looks good and the chickadee is precious! I can just imagine he flew in there.

The pancakes got done today with the blueberry and syrup.. Really really good. DD8 had a sleepover with her cousins and all the kids polished off the pancakes with the syrup. thanks again mabel. I just realized that my favorite ever jam is by stonewall kitchen also -roasted garlic and onion jam.

I confess that as I was eating my pancake, I was feeling a bit bad about my swap partner - she seems to have not received the package.. off to track the UPS number...

I am glad you enjoyed the pancakes. I wish I could have sent some frozen wild Maine blueberries to go with, but couldn't quite manage that!

Stonewall Kitchen makes amazing treats. I have not tried the roasted garlic and onion jam yet but I will do so soon. We buy their ketchup exclusively, it is fabulous. I was thinking of you today as we ate breakfast and watched the birds in the backyard at the feeders. We have a storm coming in thus the feeders were extra busy. We watched one chickadee up close when it perched on the grapevine by the window less than 3 feet from us. I need to try and hand feed them.

That's so nice you saw the chickadee's. Sure sounds like the pancakes and syrup were a big hit, not that there was doubt. Great box, being used well makes for a wonderful swap experience.

Looks like Maple products are as popular an item as Ann's boards in this swap! Mmmm pancakes......now I know whats for breakfast.