Thanks for the update Feline, I haven't followed maple sugar stuff since the 70s. From what I understood at the time, the Americans mostly used the plugs and the Canadians didn't. I was quite concerned over the use of pesticides and the amounts of residue in prepared foods, cottonseed oil was a big offender.
I've always believed in growing what I can, and eating as local as I can (not that many choices growing up in Alaska...) as well as eating seasonally. Mostly we eat fresh foods now, and we try to buy within 200 miles from us, our milk for example is local. Since hubby has gone Keto and lost so much weight (200 pounds!) he is more interested in where his food comes from and we will be switching to locally produced meat. Will be a large financial hit at first, we will have to buy a freezer among other things. I'm a former vegetarian but have adjusted to life as an omnivore, however the modern factory farming of pigs particularly bothers my moral senses.
Today is my small group day and Farmer's Market day, our market is in the afternoon so work people can come, runs from 3-7 PM and so most of the produce is indeed picked that morning or the day before. We have new vendors this year including an egg guy and a meat guy. True free range farm chicken eggs are $8.00 a dozen, we can probably buy for $6 if we travel to the farms. Fresh eggs are a marvelous thing and have flavor! Hubby has been really enjoying a couple other new vendors this year, a micro greens lady (not sprouts, they are cut off at the roots) and the mushroom lady. She has several varieties of mushrooms, hubby loves the Lions Mane.