Today was all about sweet stuff! We started with a tour at Goodrich’s Maple Farm to learn all about harvesting & processing Maple syrup.
This cross-section of an ancient maple tree shows the scars of every season it was tapped! The tags indicate the eras…
In the old days people put taps in and hung buckets to collect the watery sap. Now the have smaller taps connected by plastic tubing with vacuums to suck the sap down to the sugar shack!
The early season syrup is pale golden, mild & buttery. Then comes amber, followed by dark amber – which constitutes most of the syrup you buy at the grocery stores. But the truly glorious extra dark syrup collected at the very end of the season takes maple syrup to all new heights! Pure heaven – such a rich & robust flavor!
On to the Ben & Jerry’s factory for more sweet stuff!
The entire place is sunshine & happiness combined with non-stop puns… Mooooving right along!
The tour was interesting & fun AND included free samples of Half Baked icecream but what we really came to see was The Flavor Graveyard – and it was a total hoot!
Indeed, Ben & Jerry left us with this bit of wisdom to live by:
Yellowrock & Roll! 