Sugar on snow time again in VT - Saturday March 29

The last weekend in March saw many of the area's sugarhouses open their doors to the public for VT's annual Sugar On Snow events, celebrating the new seasons crop of maple syrup. The weather has been just beautiful so it made for a very nice day or two of travelling about the countryside and sampling some of the local fare... Bubs would have been wondering why Mum's diet suddenly went to 75% sugar!

Anyway, here are some pics of the sugar shacks we visited...


First up was Dakin Farms, who also do fantastic cured meats and maple sausage chilli as well as their maple syrup.

The guy in the forefront here in the checked shirt is Sam Cutting Sr, the elder of the brothers who have owned Dakin Farms since the 1960s

The maple sap boiling away to make the yummy syrup - it has to reach approx. 220F before they run it out of the boiling vat.

Adam gets a closer look

The syrup hits temp and is run out into a stainless steel bucket - then we were all given toasty hot fresh samples of the new season's maple syrup to try - Mmmm!

Adam chats with Sam Cutting Sr about the history and process... and yes, he asked a LOT of questions!

Next up was Hillsboro Sugarworks, about 30 mins away...

We reached the sugar shack after what would normally not have been too strenuous a walk up the steep hill... suffice it to say under current circs Jayne was more than aware of Bubs taking up valuable lung space!

Adam chatting with one of the owners, Sue Folino... yes he was still asking LOTS of questions ;) Overhead you can also see the blue pipes running sap in from the trees on the mountain side into the shed where the storage tank resides

This pic shows the big evaporation tank where the sap is boiled down. In front are the two filtration clamps where the syrup is run through to remove any unwanted residues before it goes into the storage barrel

The boiling syrup leaves the evaporation tank

Sue fits the filtration clamp together...

... putting sheets of special filter paper between each layer...

... and tightening the whole thing up before it is turned horizontal

Dave Folino adds a special powder to the syrup which draws out any impurities before filtering removes it all

... a good stir by Sue...

Once it's all filtered Sue pours off the hot syrup into a jug so the watching crowd can all get a taste of it.

Yup, it was pretty good stuff... a darker, richer flavoured syrup than we'd tried at Dakin Farms. Cheers!

Looking out one of the windows you can see the sap lines weaving from tree to tree up the mountain side

Dave shows us what a bear can do to the sap lines... I don't blame 'em for gnawing on the pipes to get to the sweet nectar with all that snow on the ground! Mind, it sounds like a job and a half trying to keep the lines all up and running over the season... especially when you have some 15,000 trees tapped!

Easter weekend

We were fortunate to have some lovely weather for Easter weekend in between the lingering snowfalls we still keep getting...well, I say snow, it's mostly sleet and ice just now so not so nice... but Spring is definitely just round the corner... we hope!

We decided to take a ride out to a few of the state parks and natural areas around here and managed to 'do' (!) 3 peaks in one day.

First up was Mount Philo, a 168-acre park overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains of New York. This is Vermont's oldest state park created in 1924. Various hiking trails lead from the base to the summit but we didn't brave them because there's still so much snow around. A narrow, steep road also leads to the top which we went part way up before chickening out due to the steep iciness and the numerous screaming sledders hurtling down again at a high rate!

We set off up the snowy track, Safi leading the way as usual.

Adam and Saf wait for Jayne and Bump to catch up while two sledders head back up for another shot.

Jayne and Bump look on as Safi and another doggy engage in the universal nose to butt canine greeting

Next we headed over to Pease Mountain. This is a low (800ft) but prominent hill in Charlotte, VT and is a twin of sorts to the better known Mt. Philo we'd just visited. This was not a particularly successful stop-off either, again due to all the remaining snow and iciness. Still, we did find an outdoor ice rink which we assume the school create and use in the winter months.

Safi was the only one brave enough to venture out onto the ice rink below Pease Mountain

Next we headed to Camel's Hump, one of the most easily recognisable of Vermont's Green Mountains. Apparently, the Waubanaukee Indians first named it "Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wadso" or Saddle Mountain. Samuel de Champlain's explorers in the 1600s called it "Lion Couchant" or resting lion. The name "Camel's Hump" however was used on a historical map by Ira Allen in 1798, and this stuck to become it's official name in 1830. Originally a gift of 1000 acres from Colonel Joseph Battell (who had bought it to preserve the wooded mountain view from his home), today's Camel's Hump State Park is some 20,000 acres.

I've included this picture mostly so you can see how gorgeous the weather was... barely a cloud to be seen and beautifully sunny... still pretty damn cold mind.

You can see the snow-topped Camel's Hump a little clearer in these two shots...

We drove up a long, narrow, twisty, muddy, icy track and finally reached the car park towards the top of the mountain


We set out along the wooded trail to see how far we could get

Turns out we didn't get very far at all before we came across a steep sided stream which Jayne and Bump were in no fit state to cross. We'll definitely be back tho' once conditions improve, and certainly once Bubs is here - there look to be a great many trails here we'd love to explore some more.

On the way back down the mountain we stopped to take some pictures of all the pipes and tubes running between the trees, taking sap from the maple trees down to a bulk storage tank by the side of the road.

With the use of a section of trusty drainpipe supported along a wooden rail, the collected sap looked like it could be transferred to a vehicle on the track for transport to the nearby sugar shack for boiling down into syrup.

More about sugar shacks and maple syrup in the next post...

Bump... as of March 15

Still growing...

Vicky's visit - short but so sweet :)

So, as I was saying... Vicky came to stay. :)

It was really good to see Vic and spend some time catching up... it's been three years since we last saw each other... and we both lived in the UK then. It's not every day you have a friend 'drop in while they were passing' from UK back to New Zealand, so we were very glad she managed to fit in a short but sweet VT pit-stop. We collected her from Montreal airport on Monday 3rd March and she headed homewards on Thursday 6th.

In between all the sleeping and eating and shopping for outdoor clothing (I had forgotten how Vic likes to browse... to the extreme ;) Only kidding V - it was fun!) we actually remembered to take a few photos, not that we had the time/energy to really get up to any exciting stuff...

Vic found the time to do her physio exercises to strengthen her ankle after it's recent break... she's the only person I know who would trail her special cushion all the way round the world for that specific purpose...

... Safi would dearly have loved to sink her teeth into it!

We sadly didn't get much sunshine while Vic was here, but we managed to get out for a short walk with Safi on one of the better days. Here Saf was getting anxious that this doggy was going to steal her stick - so she attempted to devour it to the point of making her gums bleed... silly pup!


Vic snaps the whale tails while Saf contemplates her options for finding a new stick

Jayne and Vicky - unintentionally I seem to have a truck about to drive into my brain (or that space where it used to be) while Vic appears to have acquired antlers!?

Needless to say I took Vicky to Libby's Blue Line Diner for brunch the day she left... all our visitors come here at least once!

All too soon it was time to say adios to Vicky and wave her off from Burlington bus station

Good ol' Greyhound bus got her safely to Montreal where she picked up her onward flight to NZ, via San Francisco.

So long Vic. Thanks for coming to see us :) and for the tea and lovely NZ gifts. Maybe we'll get down to the southern hemisphere, or perhaps we'll meet up back in Blighty sometime. Either way I hope it's not too long.

Happy Birthday Adam!

Adam turned a still-youthful (!) 33 years old the day after Vicky landed in snowy Burlington. Unbeknown to him, plans were afoot to celebrate his big day in style...

The day kicked off with a sneaky lie-in and Jayne taking the birthday boy up a cup of tea in bed (almost unheard of these days!) while he opened cards and pressies.

Then there was the traditional birthday breakfast... toasted English muffin with Philadelphia cream cheese topped with a thick slice of grilled tomato and Canadian bacon (well, of course it would have been British if only we coul dget it here!). Mmmm. We only ever have that on birthday's and it always feels like such a treat. :)

Then of course the poor love had to go to work :( so it was action stations back at the house...

Jayne ran out to the supermarket (well, when I say ran... I mean drive of course) to pick up the missing ingredients to make Adam's birthday cake. Vicky by this time was up and out of bed - a well-deserved lie-in after all her travels and headache etc.

A couple of hours later and the carrot cake was almost done when Adam called to ask when and where we were meeting for his birthday lunch! Now, how's a girl supposed to put off the birthday boy without upsetting him?? (I mentioned there were other plans afoot...) Well, it ain't easy that's for sure and so, after explaining that I was still waiting for something to come out of the oven and that I didn't think we could make lunch until 2pm, a slightly miffed Adam finally got off the phone.

Vicky and I then packed the still-warm cake into the car and made it unseen into Adam's lab office for 2pm as agreed with 'his girls' who'd come up with the idea of surprising him with a little afternoon birthday party. The little tricksters hadn't even wished him a happy birthday and pretended they didn't know it was such an occasion, even tho Adam openly admitted to dropping many hints in the days leading up to it. :)

Anyway, while I iced the cake Jana (Adam's post-doc) was on the phone to Adam trying to get him up to the lab under the pretence that the Environmental Health Officers had turned up and needed to speak to him urgently. Hehehe... well, it would have been funny had we been able to get him on the phone. Jana ended up going down to his office, writing him a note and slamming it down on his desk in an agitated manner so that he would get off the phone with whoever he was speaking to...

Adam's lab, L to R: Courtney, Jana, Beth, Sarah

(Jana at this point was still trying to get through to Adam on the phone)

While we were waiting I managed to catch Vic's reaction to being back in a lab after having turned to the dark side (errm, computers and stuff) for so long... ;)

It only took a couple of minutes for Adam to appear in the lab looking somewhat harrassed. Oh dear! What meanies we are to wind him up on his birthday. ;) Still, he soon cheered up when he saw the cake and cheeseboard, and his lab all singing him Happy Birthday. :)

Gotcha! Happy Birthday Dr Lock.

Don't forget to make a wish.

That night Adam and I celebrated in unique style by going to our first birthing class! To make up for the unusual birthday outing we went for a slap up meal at The Bearded Frog the following night... fab company, food and cocktails!

Vicky, Adam and a rather nice Mojito (snapped with the camera phone hence the pants pic quality)

Adam's special Birthday dessert - tangerine and liquorice pannacotta on a raspberry coulis. Mmmm! The choccie writing was pretty tasty too. :) No Hershey's on this plate!