I think they would be good in cookies, but i havent tried that yet.
Re: fresh The maple syrup smell is pretty faint when fresh, i wonder how much sweetness would be present. Do they need to be cooked if eaten fresh?
Congrats! I haven't seen them yet this year in the Bay Area, but last year i found them a few times in Sonoma County.
Windows doesn't run every game i want. I couldn't get the first Command and Conquer to be playable at all. I have had the same experience many times with older strategy and simulation games: they just don't work very well on modern Windows.
By contrast, so far Linux does play every game i want. My entire library going back decades works just fine with Wine or Proton. It's easy once you get used to using a translation layer.
I don't play Apex, League, or Fortnite, so that's probably why i dont feel like i'm missing anything on Linux.