Carrot Cake Granola

The maple season ends. I took the taps out Wednesday because the sap had turned — the trees are budding, the sap going bitter with the change, and trying to push the season past its end produces syrup that is cloudy and off-flavor and not worth the effort. This year's final tally: seventeen gallons of syrup, my best season in a decade. The good freeze-thaw pattern held longer than usual. Or perhaps I was in the sugarhouse more, with fewer reasons to be elsewhere, and caught more of the running. Possibly both.

Seventeen gallons went into jars in the cellar. Two quarts set aside for immediate use, four quarts shipped to David and Sarah and the children — the shipping was more complicated than usual, everything complicated these days, but the post office was open and the syrup went out Thursday. I included a note in each box: the syrup is from this March's season, grade A medium amber, from the maples my grandfather planted in 1921. The same trees. The same season. Every year. This will continue after I am gone, if I do my job right. I believe I am doing my job right.

Helen and I have established a quarantine routine that is not entirely different from our normal retirement routine, adjusted for the absence of trips to Burlington and the absence of visitors. We get up at five. We have coffee and the newspaper. I walk Frost on the road — empty now, no traffic, just the birds and the mud and the cold spring air. Helen tends the seedlings in the spare room (she put them in early this year, in February, because she had the time and the attention). I write. We eat lunch. I walk Frost again in the afternoon. We cook dinner together. Sarah calls at eight. We go to bed at nine. This is a good day. This is what a good day looks like in March 2020, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.

The pandemic is frightening for the numbers of people it is taking. I know this. I read about it every morning with care and with the sorrow it deserves. What I know from my own experience is that fear and grief are not incompatible with making a good dinner, calling your daughter, walking your dog in the mud, and getting up tomorrow to do it again. Some things continue. That is not denial. That is how you get through.

Seventeen gallons is a lot of syrup to work through, and Helen and I have been making deliberate use of it all spring — in coffee, over yogurt, and most reliably in a batch of carrot cake granola that I put together most weekends now. It belongs to our morning routine the way the newspaper does: something worth doing, something that keeps. I give you the recipe here because it asks almost nothing of you and returns more than you expect, which is about the best you can say of anything in a season like this one.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 10

Ingredients

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup finely shredded carrots (about 2 medium carrots)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/3 cup pure maple syrup (grade A medium amber recommended)
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Heat your oven to 325°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
Combine the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, shredded carrots, chopped nuts, coconut, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt until evenly mixed.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the maple syrup, melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract.
Bring it together. Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients and stir well, making sure every oat and carrot shred is coated. Spread the mixture in an even layer on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake, stirring once. Bake for 30–35 minutes, stirring gently at the halfway point, until the granola is golden and fragrant. The carrots will darken slightly at the edges — that is what you want.
Cool completely. Remove from the oven and let the granola cool on the pan without stirring; it will crisp as it cools. Once fully cool, scatter the raisins over the top and toss to combine.
Store. Transfer to an airtight jar or container. The granola keeps well at room temperature for up to two weeks.

Nutrition (per serving)

Carrot Cake Granola — Making Good Use of the Season’s Syrup