Maple popcorn

[crystal falls]

How soon can one start making maple popcorn before event? I do not want to wait till the day before if I can start making it a week out if it will not be stale. Batch of maple popcorn in my house does not last long. Ha Ha. This is m 1st event so a bit excited and bit nervous. I like to get as much done ahead of time if at all possible.

[mol1jb]

As an experienced popcorn consumer I would not make it until the morning of. Even saving popcorn for a half a day it can taste a bit stale. You could experiment with containers that seal well and see how long it stays fresh for. But in general popcorn in hard to keep fresh unless it is well sealed in a container.

[maple flats]

While it may not pertain to maple popcorn, the lightbulb in a small popcorn machine does well keeping plain popcorn taste fresh. Maybe you can try a single batch and put it in something that will contain the warmth and drying effect on the maple popcorn and just do a test.
We had a popcorn machine and the cabinet was not air tight, it could breathe, and with the light in it turned on it kept the popcorn fresh. I think the bulb was 40 watt if I recall. Ours was about 18" x18"x24" or so.

[crystal falls]

I am making a lot of maple popcorn that needs to be baked so I can not wait till the morning to pop and bake in the oven for hour. I just made a batch last weekend and set aside a small amount to taste about 6 days later and it was good. I had a friend also tasted it ( she my test sampler and did not know that I had set it aside) and said it was still very good, The baking of the popcorn with then maple glaze I think helps it from going stale. You see in the popcorn stores and those big bins at Christmas time that the popcorn is made well in advance. I am thinking a week ahead of time I should be good. Do you think that a week ahead will be ok?