Syrup

Wisps of steam curled around Ralph Curtis' hands and fogged his glasses as he peered into a four-foot-wide pan of maple syrup slowly heating over bright blue propane-fed flames. "A watched pot . . . ," Curtis muttered as he gently dragged a tubular cup in circular motions through about 12 gallons of glossy brown syrup. With the smooth moves of a master craftsman, he lifted a cupful of steaming syrup and tested its density with a long glass tube called a hydrometer. The instrument told him what his eyes and hands already knew: The syrup was not quite ready.

Dear Polly: I like blueberry syrup, which is rather expensive. I have access to fresh blueberries and would make my own syrup, if only I had a recipe. Can you help? - Alma Dear Alma: Here is a simple recipe for making any type of berry syrup. It's delicious with fresh blueberries, but can be used with strawberries or raspberries. Frozen fruit can be added as well. Pick over, wash and crush 2 cups ripe berries. In a 2-quart saucepan, bring the crushed berries to a boil over medium heat, watching carefully so they don't boil over.

In the wooded Andorra Natural Area of Philadelphia yesterday, 8-year-old Linda Curry of Mount Airy learned a valuable lesson of the annual maple harvest: Syrup takes its sweet time. Tapping the maple tree, waiting for the sap to fill the harvest bucket and boiling away the excess water to make syrup is a painstaking, labor-intensive process. "It's so much easier to buy it in the store," said Linda, who was in the natural area with dozens of other kids and their parents for the Maple Sugar Festival.

A 64-year-old Frankford pharmacist was arrested yesterday and charged with illegally dispensing prescription drugs worth $6 million on the street. Many of the drugs were those used to make the popular but deadly combination known as "pancakes and syrup. " The pharmacist, Louis Brickman, operator of Lou's Pharmacy on Frankford Avenue near Dyer Street, was led from his store in handcuffs by Drug Enforcement Administration agents as several surprised customers looked on. Brickman dispensed about 1.9 million dosage units of controlled drugs that included Dilaudid, Ritalin, Tuinal, Doriden, Emprin with codeine, Tussionex suspension, Valium, and bromanyl expectorant, according to DEA special agent Lewis Rice.

What: Mama Mary's Homestyle Pancakes Maker: Spartan Foods of America Where: Supermarket dairy cases Size: 16.5 ounces, 6 (6-inch) pancakes Price: $2.99 Introduced last year, these nonfrozen refrigerated pancakes go into national distribution next month. They are ready-to-eat, plate-size adult pancakes, which heat in 30 seconds by microwave. Good nutrient balance makes these perfect for quick breakfasts. Each pancake has 180 calories, 4 grams of fat and 460 milligrams sodium (from leavening agents)

The former owner of an East Falls drugstore, his pharmacist, and their best customer yesterday were each sentenced to five years in prison by a federal judge for trafficking in deadly drugs known to abusers as "pancakes and syrup. " U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois said 113 people in Philadelphia died of overdoses from the sedative Glutethimide combined with codeine-based cough syrup during the 30-month period when the three defendants trafficked in the drugs. "The crime is such that prison is absolutely necessary," the judge said.

Kindergartners at Country Day School of the Sacred Heart in Bryn Mawr made delicious syrup from sap they collected from two campus maple trees. It began with a spring lesson about the budding plants they observed in their classroom and on the campus. With winter's end, the class followed its teacher, Surrey Flint, outside to two sugar maples, and watched as she drove a small metal spout, known as a spile, into the trunk before hanging a collection bag under it. She explained that the combination of cold nights and warm days makes the sap run in these trees.

MINNEAPOLIS - Sweat was sparkling just below the edge of Brother Walter Kieffer's fleece cap as he high-stepped through the snow in a maple forest at St. John's University, quickly drilling holes in one tree after another. But 47 years after he first started helping coax hundreds of maples into sharing their sap for syrup, Kieffer described it as something more than a chore. "It's a lot of, lot of work, but it's just something to get spring going in your blood," Kieffer said during a brief pause.

Families can finish off February, a somewhat sour weather month, with some sweetness and, with any luck, a little sunshine. There will be plenty of sweet - and sticky - stuff to go around at Andorra Natural Area's Maple Sugar Festival on Saturday. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., youngsters can tour the sugarbush, help gather the sap from the trees, and taste it from the spout. (Against the backdrop of two outdoor campfires, kids can try the American Indian method of sliding a hot rock into the sap to boil off the water to make syrup.

Kelvin Bloodsaw, 10 (foreground), and Chris Herbert, 10, both of the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Philadelphia, dig through a pool of syrup to collect coins for IHOP's "Syrup Swim for Charity" in Jenkintown yesterday.

1 quart ripe strawberries 2 tablespoons maple syrup or other sweetener 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1. Wash, hull, and cut strawberries into 3 or 4 pieces each. 2. Add lemon juice and maple syrup. Mix gently. From the kitchen of Giuliana and Bob Pierson Per serving (based on 6): 49 calories, 1 gram protein, 12 grams carbohydrates, 9 grams sugar, trace fat, no cholesterol, 2 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber.

I LIKE MY COFFEE black, my whiskey straight and my hefeweizen without a lemon slice. But I'm a total sucker for that green syrup they pour into Berliner Weisse. It's called woodruff, made from a sweet, aromatic herb, and it's usually served as a dessert topping. How anyone thought to spike a wheat beer with the stuff is beyond me. Yet, if you order a goblet in any Berlin beer garden, the waiter will almost surely ask: "Rot oder grün?" A schuss (or shot) of red or green? The red is sweet raspberry syrup, which is kid stuff.

Leftover wine is a certainty at Rob Stewart's house. Not because he's a wine educator with 1,500 bottles in his basement, but because he and his partner of almost 24 years, Lisa Chedister, are serial entertainers. "We invite people over at least once a week. It's pretty casual, though," Stewart says. "Why not? It's expensive to go to a restaurant!" Chedister chimes in. Opened reds and whites never go to waste here. Stewart uses them for deglazing saute pans, for enriching his tawny-colored stock, which is long-simmered using a full bottle of wine, water, roasted chicken or duck or pheasant bones, onion, carrot, star anise, cloves, parsley, thyme, and bay leaves.

Q: What is the difference between regular corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup? A: Both types of corn syrup start the same way: Cornstarch is treated with an acid or an enzyme, turning it into glucose syrup. To make regular corn syrup - the kind found in supermarkets and used by home bakers for candies and frostings - manufacturers clarify and reduce glucose syrup until it's the right consistency. High-fructose corn syrup is also made from corn-derived glucose syrup, but it requires additional chemical reactions that convert some of the glucose into fructose, creating a sweetener that contains both.

Our spirited infatuation with the new generation of absinthe is at risk of waning after just a few years, I'm afraid. Its mystique as the green fairy inspiration juice of artistes, if anything, helped its case. It's slipping more because Americans have never really embraced anise-flavored herbaceous liqueurs, and especially not one that demands waiting for an antique fountain to slow-drip sugar cubes into syrup to get the party started. Absinthe's best shot at popular success is in the punch bowl, it seems, especially if the Green Beast we re-created from London bartender Charles Vexenat for our block party is an indicator.

Highly motivated, Gene doesn't want to be shackled to cholesterol-lowering drugs for life and would prefer to shed those excess pounds. That's why he and his family - wife Karen, 10-year-old daughter Haley, and 8-year-old son Luke - courageously agreed to let me raid their refrigerator, eliminating the diet-busting foods hiding there. Already a fitness buff, Gene plays gym hockey in a competitive league, so he has good cardiovascular endurance. The entire Fatula clan trains and studies karate.

A: The simplest way to save leftover herbs is to dry them. Spread the sprigs on a dish towel, and leave them out of direct sunlight for two to four days. Use them on their own, or mix the herbs, finely chopped, with an equal amount of coarse salt. Add the blend to dishes as you cook or at the table - try marjoram with vegetables, and tarragon with fish and poultry. Fragrant herbs such as lavender can scent sugar: Place a few dried flowers in a jar of sugar for one week, shaking it occasionally.

VANCOUVER - Ally Sheane bustled through the "exit" gate, her lunch hour burned, two bags of treasure in her hands. Sheane, 22, was sent Monday by the public relations firm that employs her to purchase Winter Olympics gear downtown at The Bay. It was noon, and it was more than she bargained for. And more than The Bay bargained for. Sheane, her feet sneakered beneath her business suit, her curly red hair pinned down for the excursion, stood...

MINNEAPOLIS - Sweat was sparkling just below the edge of Brother Walter Kieffer's fleece cap as he high-stepped through the snow in a maple forest at St. John's University, quickly drilling holes in one tree after another. But 47 years after he first started helping coax hundreds of maples into sharing their sap for syrup, Kieffer described it as something more than a chore. "It's a lot of, lot of work, but it's just something to get spring going in your blood," Kieffer said during a brief pause.

Blessed with an abundance of maples on the farm he bought 13 years ago, Glen Hale took his cue from nature: He decided to make syrup. But it is his location, in Bucks County - not in Vermont, or in one of Pennsylvania's bountiful maple regions - that has made it unusual. From 600 trees scattered around their farm in Tinicum, Glen and Cindy Hale will make about 120 gallons of syrup this year. Pennsylvania is among the top maple syrup-producing states in the nation, ranking sixth last season, producing 66,000 gallons, from more than 100 sugar makers throughout the state.