I must say that today was one of the best I’ve spent with my family for a long time. I woke up around lunch and ate. Then Dad asked Ilea and I if we wanted to go to the sugar shack. Of course we both wanted to and quickly got ready(rubber boots are a must, sadly, since the roads and woods can be very muddy)
See, one of my family’s businesses is maple products(the others are Christmas trees and blue berries). It’s only a small company but they have a couple hundred acres of woods where they gather sap and make maple syrup, cream, butter, sugar and some other products.
By one we were at the road to the camp. We parked the car at the end since Dad didn’t know what condition the road was. It turns out that though it was muddy, it wouldn’t have been a problem to take the car most of the way in. After a 15-20 minute walk we arrived. I really can’t describe what an inviting smell greets you when you open the door to the camp. Hot maple syrup/sap is boiling in the room adjcent to the kitchen/entrance, so that always causes you to salivate. 😉
The camp is situated in a bit of a clearing, below a hill on which the road goes down. On every side of it there are tapped trees. Most now use the piping so that we don’t have to gather it by hand, but we do use can on some trees that are not as easily used in the pipeline to keep that tradition alive. When I was younger that’s all they had there and it took hours to gather the sap each day. I still look fondly at those times though, since it was a bit of bonding time with my family.
The building itself isn’t all that impressive, though it does have a lot of history. It has the kitchen/entrance on the left and another, much larger room with an evaporator that actually makes the syrup by boiling the sap, making the sugar concentration much greater(the ratio of sap to final product is something like 40L to 1L). The taste of the sap itself is similar to a juice that has been watered down, the sugar is barely noticable. One evaporated it’s some of the best tasting stuff on earth. 😀
The walls of the building aren’t able to be described as anything but rustic. They are mostly bare boards, covered with various posters, signs, photos, and whatever else my uncles decide to add. There are two posters that everyone seems to enjoy though. The “Why Worry” one is especially nice.
When I got there my cousin Sara(), her parents Tony and Karen, my uncles Cyril and Gerry and Laurence, a friend of the family were all there. After looking around for a while, enjoying the atmosphere and eating some maple candies, Sara, Ilea and I played a couple games of cards. That was cool, since I won a game :-P. I forgot to bring home a PSP CD for Sara though, so that will have to wait until school is done.
Anyway, after that we walked around, enjoyed the woods. Then it was time to gather sap. That took about half an hour to gather everything up, since they had already emptied the large tanks. Walking was mucky but the whole thing was fun and brought back a lot of memories, like always. In two weeks the Maple Syrup festival will be held and I will be missing it for the first time in a few years. I know I’ll be missing it. It was always really cool to see the tourists, especially the Japanese ones, really enjoy being in the woods, and seeing something as natural and impressive as the maple production.
Eventually we came home though. For dinner we had roast, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, gravey… it was really good… the best meal I’ve had in months.
I’m really missing Ashley a lot since I haven’t been able to talk to her much since I’ve been home. Tomorrow I’ll be going shopping with my family so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to talk to her then either 🙁 I’ll hopefully be on just after dinner though… Sunday will be fine though, I’ll be able to relax and talk to Ashley whenever she can be online since Greg will be visiting Ilea and she won’t be hogging the phone line. 😛
I hope you enjoyed this lengthy post. Have a good night everyone. Farewell.
See, one of my family’s businesses is maple products(the others are Christmas trees and blue berries). It’s only a small company but they have a couple hundred acres of woods where they gather sap and make maple syrup, cream, butter, sugar and some other products.
By one we were at the road to the camp. We parked the car at the end since Dad didn’t know what condition the road was. It turns out that though it was muddy, it wouldn’t have been a problem to take the car most of the way in. After a 15-20 minute walk we arrived. I really can’t describe what an inviting smell greets you when you open the door to the camp. Hot maple syrup/sap is boiling in the room adjcent to the kitchen/entrance, so that always causes you to salivate. 😉
The camp is situated in a bit of a clearing, below a hill on which the road goes down. On every side of it there are tapped trees. Most now use the piping so that we don’t have to gather it by hand, but we do use can on some trees that are not as easily used in the pipeline to keep that tradition alive. When I was younger that’s all they had there and it took hours to gather the sap each day. I still look fondly at those times though, since it was a bit of bonding time with my family.
The building itself isn’t all that impressive, though it does have a lot of history. It has the kitchen/entrance on the left and another, much larger room with an evaporator that actually makes the syrup by boiling the sap, making the sugar concentration much greater(the ratio of sap to final product is something like 40L to 1L). The taste of the sap itself is similar to a juice that has been watered down, the sugar is barely noticable. One evaporated it’s some of the best tasting stuff on earth. 😀
The walls of the building aren’t able to be described as anything but rustic. They are mostly bare boards, covered with various posters, signs, photos, and whatever else my uncles decide to add. There are two posters that everyone seems to enjoy though. The “Why Worry” one is especially nice.
When I got there my cousin Sara(
Anyway, after that we walked around, enjoyed the woods. Then it was time to gather sap. That took about half an hour to gather everything up, since they had already emptied the large tanks. Walking was mucky but the whole thing was fun and brought back a lot of memories, like always. In two weeks the Maple Syrup festival will be held and I will be missing it for the first time in a few years. I know I’ll be missing it. It was always really cool to see the tourists, especially the Japanese ones, really enjoy being in the woods, and seeing something as natural and impressive as the maple production.
Eventually we came home though. For dinner we had roast, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, gravey… it was really good… the best meal I’ve had in months.
I’m really missing Ashley a lot since I haven’t been able to talk to her much since I’ve been home. Tomorrow I’ll be going shopping with my family so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to talk to her then either 🙁 I’ll hopefully be on just after dinner though… Sunday will be fine though, I’ll be able to relax and talk to Ashley whenever she can be online since Greg will be visiting Ilea and she won’t be hogging the phone line. 😛
I hope you enjoyed this lengthy post. Have a good night everyone. Farewell.