After a nice walk down at the lake, we stopped here to try our Sugar on Snow.
Check out the temp! What a strange day to have Sugar on Snow. You may wonder how they make it when there's no snow around. I found out that they use a snow making machine (like they use for snow cones) and drizzle the maple syrup onto that shaved ice rather than real snow. I think we were cheated a bit but I suppose this is also more sanitary :)
When you go to a sugar house you really get to see how maple sugar is made. I can't give a good explanation, but I'll try to explain it as I understand it and you can google if you're really interested. Maple trees are "tapped" in the late winter (it all depends on temperature I think) and the syrup runs out of them through an elaborate network of tubing. The tubes all end up running into the sugar house. Inside the sugar house there is this cool steam tent you see below.
The sap runs through metal troughs and is boiled down until it turns into syrup.
It doesn't have to be this precise, we have friends/family that have made their own by boiling a huge pot over a campfire too! It's more efficient to do it this way as it take about 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of syrup. Here is a guy pouring the finished syrup into a jug. When you buy "real pure Vermont syrup" this is how it's made :)
The sales counter....I was informed by the women that I was allowed to taste the syrup as it's heated. They told me you aren't supposed to have honey while pregnant because it isn't pasteurized or heated to get rid of bacteria. I love honey and have been eating it throughout my pregnancy. OOPS.
Sugar on snow served with a pickle and donut. YUM.
We found some friends outside :)
That's all for now! Hope you're having a good week. It's almost Wednesday...
xo!
