Sugarbush Farm

Last weekend, we traveled to Vermont for Maple Sugar Open House weekend.  Pure maple syrup is a much loved commodity in our house so we thought that it would be interesting (for all of us) to see how it is made.  We first visited Sugarbush Farm, in Woodstock.  Unlike a lot of the sugar houses that were open over the weekend, Sugarbush Farm is always open, so it had great demonstrations and incredibly informative employees.  Sugarbush makes both cheese and maple syrup.  We got to try several different types of cheeses, as well as the four different types of syrup.  I never actually realized that there was such a difference in maple syrup and as a family, we all settled on what we liked best.  After our tasting, we headed down to the sugar house to watch how they make the syrup.  Did you know that it takes 40 gallons of sugar water (the stuff that comes from the tree) to make one gallon of maple syrup?  The process is fascinating.  After spending some quality time in the sugar house, we headed back up to the store and buy some syrup, cheese, and a warming pitcher.

All of the different types of cheeses, dipped in wax. 

Mmmmmm...... 

Trying different types of maple syrup. 

The different cheese (we tried most of them).

Tapping the trees the old fashioned way. 

The Sugar House. 

Inside of the Sugar House.

 There was a lot of smoke (from the fire) and steam (from the boiling process).

Maple syrup!! 

Watching the maple syrup pour out. 

Kegs (sort of) of maple syrup. 

The girls. 

Of course Elizabeth (AGD) came along for the adventure.  Elizabeth got comments everywhere we went. 

The different types of maple syrup.