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| I think we see three Mt. Zion churches every time we take a trip in the country. I know Mt. Zion was the highest point in ancient Jerusalem but really, there have to be other names that can be used. It's like seeing Salt Lick Road. there are a million of them. |
Texas Longhorns are the popular beef cattle to raise in this area. My daughter in law saw this guy and said....oooh, they taste so good. She's Brazilian, she knows her beef!
Following the smoke, we find another sugar shack. You can look out over the countryside and chances are that where there is smoke, there is a sugar shack. You just have to find your way to it. You can use your GPS but theses places are so remote that you probably won't have power. It's a pretty safe bet this time of year because no one is doing much burning.
This one sits high on top of a steep hill. We made it to the top which thrilled the sugar shack guys. What can I say, sugaring off can be boring and they are easily entertained.
Here are the collection tanks for the maple water. The tubing empties into these.
The boiler, boiling away.
This is the finished syrup running into the barrels. This shack gives you a free bottle of syrup! Amazing. That is, along with maple cooked hot dogs, maple baked beans and an assortment of cakes and cookies. At this point The Blog Tech and his wife were groaning a bit....but still eating.
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| On the road again, we passed more beautiful farm houses. |
And more wonderful barns.
This shack is behind the garage. The family has been sugaring since the 1800's. The food is served in their garage.
An array of what they are selling. Space heaters attempt to keep them warm. I forgot to take pics of the food here but they serve a maple cake topped with maple whipped cream that my DIL loves. They also cook ham in maple syrup which is wonderful. At all of these shacks you get home cooking and insight into how they use their own product, my favorite part.
We passed this picturesque home sitting back in the woods.
To get to it, you drive through this covered bridge.
This shack was interesting. Literally in the middle of nowhere, we had to park in a snow covered ditch to get to it. My kids were horrified that we would never get out. I told them that if there is anywhere you ever want to get stuck in a ditch, it's by a sugar shack. There are big burly men with every tool in the world inside just dying to pull someone out of a ditch. The things I teach my kids.
I got out, I didn't need help.
Here's their boiler.
The brains are tucked away in this closet. It reminded me of The Wizard of Oz.
And look at this old apple press. The owner told me this was under all sorts of junk in the garage of the house he bought. He disassembled the entire thing, refurbished it then put it all back together. His neighbors bring their apples to him every Fall for him to turn them into cider.
He even has the original page from the catalog it was ordered from. It originally cost 34.75.
On our way to the last shack, we passed (guess what?) more farms houses and barns.
And if you ever wondered why so many barns are red it's because;
rust was plentiful on farms and because it killed fungi and mosses that might grow on barns, and it was very effective as a sealant. It turned the mixture red in color. When paint became more available, many people chose red paint for their barns in honor of tradition.
This shack was more urban! Though the parking lot was a sea of mud and so were we.
It seems that their equipment needs quite a bit of fine tuning. They were selling maple beer and wine here, plus they were handing out samples, We all passed on it. But in another building they had a big spread of food to sample. The Blog tech was finally satiated. At least for maple products.
And alas, Spring is truly almost here. This machine was blowing topsoil and manure over the fields to get them ready for planting. There are two more maple festivals coming up but I'm not sure we can muster any enthusiasm for them. We are eyeing a Polish festival though.
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