I made a sad discovery last week:  Mold in my maple syrup. {wahhhhhh-aah-aahh}

The label on real Maple Syrup says “keep refrigerated or frozen.” There’s a reason for that. :(

I know this. I’ve told this to others. Keep your maple syrup in the fridge or freezer.  But over the winter, our storage room is as cold as (if not colder than) a refrigerator – so our bulk maple syrup is stored there to save freezer space. Somehow I forgot about it and left it in the storage room even though – surprise, surprise – it is no longer cold in there. (Note to self: It is summer. It is hot. The storage room takes on the temperature of the outdoors. Put your maple syrup back in the freezer to store during the summer.)

When I opened the jar last week, ready to pour some into my serving bottle, I was greeted by an ugly smell and an even uglier green fuzz. Hoping I could salvage at least some of the syrup, I attempted to scrape the mold off the top.

Ever tried to scrape mold off the top of sticky liquid?  You can imagine how well it works.

In addition, the contents in the jar no longer smelled sweet. So even if I could have skimmed mold off the top, it wouldn’t have mattered. The entire jar was toxic.

Sooooo…woe is me. I had to dump it out. (Don’t picture it. It may cause you too much pain.)

I’m writing this to remind you all not to try this at home. Do not let your real maple syrup go bad. Keep it in a cold place! At all times. Especially in the summertime.

Bonus Tip:  A bowl of half-eaten applesauce will also turn green if left in the corner of the Lego Room for three weeks. This message brought to you by my eight year old.