what a packed day it was today! im so tired, i'll have to give you the quick version.
this morning, the city slickers Darrell and I spent the morning and early afternoon with Cheryl's good friend Shawn at his grandfather's maple sugar woods!! walking in to grampie's property was a completely different world that was so intriguing to us both. when i had learned yesterday evening that his grampie had a sugar shack...i KNEW i just had to ask if i could visit...i have missed out on TWO possible tours of maple sugar shacks during my trip (one in Niagara cos it just closed, and the other in Quebec City which lasted less than 5 minutes and was NOT a tour at all!). if i was going to have a truly Canadian experience, this was it...tapping a maple tree, and eating maple syrup. so off we went...
we walked into a small cabin where we met grampie and grandma, along with a few of their friends chatting around the woodstove. according to Shawn, making maple syrup is now more of a social gathering for grampie and his friends than it is a passion anymore. tapping season (when you insert little "taps" into a maple tree, and collect the sap in a bucket) takes place usually for about a month and a half...during Mar-Apr. as the sap drips into the buckets, they are then transfered into giant evaporators that boil away the moisture, eventually leaving you with a rich, dark syrup...all natural! everything about his place was made with care. we walked around parts of the 400 acres of land that grampie owns, and eventually found ourselves back at the cabin for lunch. mmm...all cooked over the wood stove from the time we arrived, till about 2.5 hours later was mashed potatoes, turnip, carrots, and sweet and sour pork. delicious.
[sap, collecting in a bucket. don't mind the police tape...there's no crime scene here! :)]
[the evaporating room, where all the goodness takes place]
[frozen sap, removed from the buckets, waiting to be boiled]
[frozen sap sitting in the boilers. 40 gallons of sap = 1 gallon of syrup...sap looks like water]
[i can't rotate this pic, but this is grampie giving us a sip of the sap...straight from the tree!! it was so delicious...similar to sugar cane water, but with a hint of maple!]
[i love this sign...it's such a canadian icon, like the cbc, lol]
[in the cabin, chatting and hanging out]
[check out the wicked old skool wood stove!]
[mmm, lunch]
after lunch, we dropped Darrell back at the house, and Shawn and I made our way to the Hopewell Rocks, as well as Cape Enrage. unfortunately, the tide was not low enough for us to walk down along the rocks, but i hope to do so upon my next return.
[ha...ha?]
[when the tide is low, you can walk under and around the rocks! note the muddy water...it's very muddy there]
[Cape Enrage - i later found out that Cheryl used to work here helping out with sea kayaking]
[cliffs...one thing i wanted to see you here were cliffs! :)]
after my time with Shawn, we booted it over to Nannie's for dinner, then Cheryl's sister's in-laws, and then Tracy and Josh (sister and husband). Such a social night...so tired...but soo great! :) visiting in people's homes has become my new favourite thing!
ok, so that wasn't as short as i thought it would be. it was such a good day. yet again, it was beautiful weather, good food, and great people that made my full day in Moncton and unforgettable one.
dL
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