Did you also know that this boy looks really cute as a maple leaf?
New Hampshire and Vermont are know for their maple syrup and there are families there who have been making it for generations. Every year they patiently wait for just the right moment when temperatures change from freezing to not-so-freezing to tap the trees and start collecting that golden goodness. I was expecting to see maple syrup running out of a faucet on every tree, ready to drip right onto a waffle. Well, there were no waffles and the process of making syrup was a little more complex than I imagined.
It looked like it would be a great, warm weekend for the opening of sugar shacks in New Hampshire so along with a few friends and a picnic in tow we headed up north.
Not too far from our destination it started looking like this:
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| Barf |
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| Double barf |
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| Super duper barf |
We were expecting more of a shack but this particular farm was much larger and more modern than most sugar shacks in New Hampshire and Vermont. Also, the steam coming from the chimney up there made the most delicious maple smelling clouds!
The golden glowing syrup lined all the shelves in the store along with candies, popcorn, butters and spreads. It was maple everything!
This maple leaf cutout was a huge hit. There were more elbows thrown to get a chance with this thing than there were to get a taste of the hot maple donuts.
Everyone was pretty excited to take a tour of the farm and see the maple syrup river winding through the forest.
Especially Andrew. I think. Or he's planning to burn the whole place to the ground.
Much to my surprise there were no kitchen faucets attached to the trees in the forest. There were actually just small black taps with blue tubing connecting all of the trees and running to a central location. The lines weren't flowing strongly thanks to the snow storm earlier that morning but if you looked closely you could see what looked like water inching it's way along the lines.
A vacuum system pulls all of the dripping sap through the lines and into a big vat at the bottom of the orchard. It looks nothing like syrup at this point. In fact it looked just like water. The gal leading the tour said that it's only about 2% sugar at this stage in the process. She let us taste a little ice chunk out of the collection tub and it had just the tiniest hint of sweetness.
From this shack the sap is pumped up to the main barn where it's boiled down to make the yummy goodness you smother on a pancake or dip your breakfast sausage in.
Speaking of sausage, they had a few pigs on this farm.
And this amazing house
Oh, and here is a cute baby to make your day
And our super rad friends, Ryan and Heather
Anyway, the sap makes it's way to this big fancy boiler where it's processed and concentrated to the right consistency and color. The color of the syrup changes depending on the temperature when the sap is collected. The sugar crystals form differently and can make the syrup lighter or darker as the season goes on. This is another point at which I as surprised, I thought we'd see some burly guy stirring a big black cauldron over a roaring fire. But this was cool too.
Can I have my syrup now??
We ended up eating all of the samples of maple cotton candy and maple cream we could before picking up a jar of maple BBQ sauce and a leaf of good old fashioned syrup. It makes our tradition of blueberry pancakes on Sunday mornings ever so slightly more tasty!
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