Clover is going to be serving brunch this Saturday and Sunday, 7am – noon, at the restaurant. Some might remember when we did this 2 years ago at the MIT truck when it was brand new. For those who don’t here’s some background.

I get really excited about this time of year. Back home where I grew up the maple trees are tapped, there are pick-ups with wooden beds driving around with tanks of sap and best of all the sugar houses are open.

Maple syrup is produced for a very short window of time. Typically 3-4 weeks, sometimes less. The nights have to be cold, but not too cold, and the days warm. Around here that happens in March. So the sugar houses are boiling around the clock for the month of March, or on weekends for those that are less commercial.

Sugar houses open to serve breakfast on these weekends. That’s 8 days a year. No, NYC didn’t invent the pop-up restaurant. They’ve been doing this forever. My favorite is South Face Farm. That’s where these pictures are from.

Tom at South Face holds a sample each day he makes syrup. This picture shows a few samples. See how the color changes? That’s due to changes in weather conditions day to day that impact the syrup. I used to think it had to do with how long the syrup had been boiled, but that’s not it.