On my recent week and a half long road trip, I had the wonderful opportunity to stay in Marathon for two nights — on the way out to New Mexico and also on the way home. For those unfamiliar with this tiny town of around 500 residents, it is best known for three things:

It is home to the Gage Hotel, a historic and elegant building circa 1927.
It’s close to Marfa, a popular arts and food destination for Austinites and East Coast art lovers.
It’s 40 miles north of Big Bend National Park, …

Over the past few days, I’ve shared my motivation and some background on why I’m so passionate about maple syrup, the history of maple syrup, an overview of some other regional syrups, government regulation and grading of maple syrup, and the recent settlement between Vermont and McDonald’s over their false maple labeling.
Today, I’ll talk about the maple harvest and terminology, maple regional pride, maple tourism, maple and the environment, and the potential health benefits of maple syrup.
Maple Harvest
Maple Syrup season is one of the first signs of spring in the …

If you read yesterday’s post, you know that I’m sort of obsessed with maple syrup. Today, I want to share with you what I’ve learned about the history of maple syrup.
The Rise of Maple Syrup
According to Wikipedia, Native Americans living in the northeastern part of North America were the first producers of maple syrup and maple sugar. The Algonquin people used stone tools to make incisions in tree trunks, and inserted reeds or pieces of bark to run the sap into buckets. The maple sap was concentrated either by dropping …

I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate a milestone. This is my 400th post. YAY! Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled programming….
Yesterday I told you about the strange coincidence that two people from my past have started successful local businesses selling granola. Jessica, of Jessica’s Natural Foods, and Michele, of Michele’s Granola.
I know Michele from our high school days in Potomac, MD. Michele was in the same class as me, David F. (aka Famous Fat Dave), and Dhani Jones (the pro football player and all-around renaissance man). …

I’ve always loved the crunchy, sweet, healthy goodness of granola in cereal, as a topping for yogurt, or in bar form thrown into my purse or backpack for a snack. There’s something special about granola, and I’ve been thinking about that recently because two people from my past have started successful, granola-based businesses. I’ll be dedicating this post and tomorrow’s post to telling their story.
The first is Jessica — a dear friend from my days at the University of Michigan. Jessica is very smart — she majored in Engineering at U …