helenkosings

1. I cannot sleep late, no matter what.  I might miss something.  Like breakfast.
2. I cannot lie when it's the polite thing to do.  It just doesn't work.  Social graces seem to have escaped me.  So, I guess you know that if I say thank-you, I really do mean it.  Otherwise, the foot goes into the mouth.
3. I won my best friend Becky by annoying her until she gave up and liked me.  Isn't stealing pieces of a person's flute in band at least slightly endearing?
4. Cereal is my favorite pre-packaged food genre.  I can eat cereal until the cows come home, laugh at me for awhile and go back out to pasture.  Good thing I found Tammy's granola recipes.  I talk about them rather a lot, if you haven't noticed.  They'll likely save our budget in the coming months.
5. My husband loves Dave Matthews Band like I love cereal and I do not.  Life's funny like that.
6. For the first time in my life, I have no plans beyond December.  A month of back and forth, hemming and hawing, up and down, waiting and waiting, I've learned a lot about flexibility and zero expectations.  Probably a good thing, considering.

• 1 1/4 cups plain flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 6 tablespoons pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 egg

I close my eyes and I am eight again. 

I am standing in a line for pancakes with my Grandma Lois and Granddad at the Maple Festival.  The Mount Rogers school has been transformed into an Appalachian festival of handcrafts, home-canned goods and community spirit.  Outside the ground is covered with snow and wet boots are wiped at the door.  We go in the cafeteria and fire fighters trade their hoses and fire-retardant coats for spatulas and aprons.  A friendly woman piles buckwheat cakes and sausage on my plate and pours me a cup of milk.

It’s one of my favorite memories.  And after almost ten years away from it, when I went back in 2004 it didn’t let me down.

Held the last full weekend in March, the Whitetop Mountain Maple Festival  has remained steady for years now.  There is always a pancake breakfast held all day.  Just choose plain or buckwheat.  There is always local sausage and apple sauce you eat from a cup.  And there are always local people selling handmade goods like bowls, walking sticks, brooms, jellies, knit and crochet items and my favorite maple syrup. 

Take a tour of the sugar house and learn the latest techniques the folks are using to produce this natural sweetener.  See steam rising from the evaporator and the fresh syrup dripping out.  You can buy the syrup  and delicious maple candy right at the sugar house while the supply holds (they do run out!).  There’s storytelling and local music other activities planned around the community.

March weather is predictably unpredictable.  Some years it’s  warm and sunny.  This year it was snowy and slippery on the Whitetop side and sunny and cool on the Mouth of Wilson side.  But it’s this time of transition that the maple sugar folks need.  The later snows mean the trees leaf out later and more sap can be taken without hurting them.

To get a glimpse of some of the trees hard at work any time of the year, visit Elk Garden and take a short walk on the Elk Garden Trail.  Here you’ll see lots of black tubes running through the forest waiting to be connected to the trees when winter is waning and spring is not far off.  There’s also an interpretive sign telling some of the steps of the sugaring process.

Travel to Whitetop when the air is cold, the pancakes are hot and a local tradition lives to celebrate another year.