Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes -- The Perfect Pour for the First Syrup of the Season

March. The magic month. The temperatures swung into the right range on Monday — twenty-five at night, forty during the day — and I tapped the maples on Tuesday morning. Twelve trees, the same twelve I've tapped for fifty years. The drill bites in, the sawdust curls out, and then: the drip. Clear. Slow. Deliberate. The tree says yes. The season begins.

I love this. I'm not a man who uses that word easily, but I love this. The cold morning, the smell of fresh sawdust, the sound of the first drops hitting the bucket, the knowledge that the tree beneath my hand has been doing this for longer than I've been alive and will do it long after I'm gone. There's a humility in sugaring that I can't find anywhere else. You don't make the sap. You collect it. The tree does the work. Your job is to show up, tap carefully, and be grateful.

First sap boil on Thursday. Twenty gallons of sap in the evaporator, the fire roaring beneath, the steam rising thick and sweet. The sugarhouse disappeared into the fog of its own making — you could see five feet in any direction and everything beyond was vapor and sweetness and the crackle of the fire. I stood at the evaporator and checked the temperature and tended the fire and thought about nothing, which is the gift of sugaring. Your body works. Your mind rests. The sap transforms. You watch.

Helen brought coffee at noon. She stood in the doorway, two mugs in hand, steam swirling around her, and said, "Smells like March." Two words. Perfect words. It did smell like March — like maple and woodsmoke and the earth waking up after five months of sleep. I took the coffee. She stayed for twenty minutes. We didn't talk. The sugarhouse does its own talking.

First half-gallon of the year: Grade A Golden, light and delicate. I tasted it warm from the evaporator — the sugar on my tongue, the complexity underneath, the flavor of forty trees and a hundred years of Bergstrom hands. I put it in a jar. The label: "Bergstrom Maple Syrup, 2018." Handwritten. Always handwritten. The jar went on the shelf next to last year's. The shelf is telling a story. Year by year. Jar by jar. The story of a man and his trees. It's a good story.

The sap is running. The season is on. March in Vermont. The best month. Always the best month. Begin.

That first half-gallon — Grade A Golden, still warm from the evaporator, tasted off a spoon in the steam of the sugarhouse — deserves a proper landing place. You don’t pour fifty years’ worth of maple over something ordinary. Helen makes these blueberry ricotta pancakes on the first Sunday after the first boil, every year without fail, and I have come to understand that the syrup and the pancakes belong to each other the way the sap belongs to March: one calls the other into being. The ricotta keeps them tender and cloud-light, just sturdy enough to hold a generous pour without going soggy, and the blueberries cut the sweetness so the maple can do its full talking.

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 4 (about 12 pancakes)

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw if frozen)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
• Pure maple syrup, for serving (Grade A Golden preferred)

Instructions

1. Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar until evenly combined. Set aside.
2. Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the ricotta, eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and lemon zest until smooth. The batter will be thick and creamy.
3. Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently with a spatula until just combined — a few small lumps are perfectly fine. Do not overmix or the pancakes will toughen.
4. Fold in the blueberries. Add the blueberries and fold in with two or three gentle strokes. Stop as soon as they’re distributed.
5. Heat the pan. Melt 1/2 teaspoon of butter in a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat. When the butter stops foaming, the pan is ready.
6. Cook the pancakes. Drop the batter in scant 1/4-cup portions onto the pan, spacing them 2 inches apart. Cook until bubbles form across the surface and the edges look set, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip and cook until golden on the second side, 1 to 2 minutes more. Repeat with remaining batter, adding butter to the pan between batches as needed.
7. Serve immediately. Stack three pancakes per plate and pour maple syrup over the top while the pancakes are still steaming. Serve at once.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 315 | Protein: 14g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 41g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 370mg