While most Greenmarket farmers have it easy this time of year, lazing about, thumbing through their Farmer’s Almanacs, maple-syrup makers are in a tree-tapping, sap-boiling frenzy. It takes 40 gallons of the sticky stuff to make one gallon of syrup—worth the effort, especially compared with the insipid supermarket variety. Charles Kiely and Sharon Pachter, of Brooklyn’s highly acclaimed Grocery restaurant, like the robust Grade B style from Deep Mountain Maple, available at Union Square. They use it to sweeten the energizing “Grocery bars” they bake twice a week for the staff to snack on, which must help them earn those stratospheric Zagat scores. --Rob Patronite

Ingredients

3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup flour
1 cup walnuts, chopped
12 dates, chopped
1 cup maple syrup, Grade A Dark Amber or Grade B
3 eggs
1 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup peanut butter

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. (1) Combine the dry ingredients. (2) Combine the wet ingredients. Add wet to dry and mix well. (3) Press into a parchment-lined sheet tray, about 1-inch thick. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, approximately 30 minutes. (Published 2005)