Sucrerie de la Montagne
Seeing that we live in the heart of maple country where 90% of the worlds maple syrup comes from, we decided to visit a Sugar Shack. Luckily, we went during the week. The owner told us that between 3000-4000 people visit per weekend once the trees are flowing!!
We parked the cars in the parking lot and loaded ourselves onto the horse drawn wagon that took us up to the festivities.
Marin, Adam, Joanne, Byron and Calli freezing on the way up to the Sugar Shack.
We entered a building made from 200 year old wood. It was rustic with a full stone floor and oil lamps, wood stoves and wood tables and benches to sit on.
We were shown to our table that was set with a wine bottle full of maple syrup and homemade pickled beets, tomatoes and sweet pickles. (Notice the wine bottle of syrup on the right??)
Shortly after we were seated, the "band" started up. He was a one man band who asked for volunteers to come up and play the spoons! Gus joined Calli and Adam to have a whack at the spoons (which were also for sale in the gift shop).
Adam dragged Calli up there, much to her own chagrin and tried getting her to join in with the other 10 people sitting there, but she just sulked and cast her eyes downward. Once she was allowed to dance, however she was in her own element. I'm not sure what Marin was imitating here...but it was quite entertaining.
Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed watching the kids dancing around and acting silly.
We were treated to a fantastic lunch consisting of traditional Quebec dishes. We were served family style, all-you-can-eat with the following dinner:
Farm-Style Crusty Bread (the "band" told us not to eat too much bread and we thought he was telling a joke!!) followed by Mountaineer's Pea Soup, Canadian Salted Back Bacon (cooked perfectly crispy), Québécois Maple-Smoked Ham (I swear it melted in my mouth!), Wood-Fired Baked Beans, Farm-Style Omelette, Traditional Meatballs Stew (delicious), Country-Style Sausages (to die for), Old-style Mashed Potatoes, Meat Pie from Quebec's Beauce Region (Tourtiere), Homemade Fruit Ketchup & Pickles. And finally dessert: Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Sugar pie (needed more room by this point, for another pie!!), tea and coffee.
Marin is a bit of a picky eater still and refuses to try anything new. Luckily for her, I managed to force a little bite of sugar pie into her mouth and there was no turning back! She was hooked!
After we were full, we were directed to the bakery where we were shown the amazing hand-built, wood-fired stone oven . It was approximately 12X8 inside and was capable of holding over 100 loaves!! The bread was fantastic and the baker comes in each night to bake for the next day.
Here are Katrina with Sarah and Gus, Adam, Marin, Calli, Grandma and Grandpa standing in front of the oven.
Calli listening intently to how an old wood-fired bread oven operates.
Moving on, we were shown the actual Sugar Shack, where all the sap is taken in from the buckets and boiled into syrup. It then passes through a fine felt filter and is bottled for consumption. They also make maple butter!
This particular Sucrerie has approximately 2500 buckets out on trees during this time. They have a team of people who collect them daily, to be emptied and boiled. The weather has to be just right for the whole process to work. They require warm days and cool nights to get the trees flowing properly otherwise they end up with what looks like ice in the buckets. If you were to taste the water/ice in the buckets it would taste like sugar water.
After this we headed back outside to taste maple taffy on snow! The troughs (lovely) were filled with fresh snow and then drizzled with little piles of maple syrup. We were given sticks with which to roll the taffy onto and attempt to eat it without getting it all over ourselves! I think we came out stickier than the syrup in the end, but it was WELL worth it!!
We looked around the gift shop and saw some neat stuff, but I only came away with Maple tea. I DO have some will-power.
Here are the horses waiting outside the gift shop to take us back down to our cars.
As far as the eye could see there were buckets attached to the trees. You could hear the men working at tapping more trees while we moseyed around the property. It was another great adventure and another thing for the kids to learn and experience. Calli did tell us that her favourite part was eating the taffy from the snow! At least she got something out of the whole experience!!!
We parked the cars in the parking lot and loaded ourselves onto the horse drawn wagon that took us up to the festivities.
Marin, Adam, Joanne, Byron and Calli freezing on the way up to the Sugar Shack.
We entered a building made from 200 year old wood. It was rustic with a full stone floor and oil lamps, wood stoves and wood tables and benches to sit on.
We were shown to our table that was set with a wine bottle full of maple syrup and homemade pickled beets, tomatoes and sweet pickles. (Notice the wine bottle of syrup on the right??)
Shortly after we were seated, the "band" started up. He was a one man band who asked for volunteers to come up and play the spoons! Gus joined Calli and Adam to have a whack at the spoons (which were also for sale in the gift shop).
Adam dragged Calli up there, much to her own chagrin and tried getting her to join in with the other 10 people sitting there, but she just sulked and cast her eyes downward. Once she was allowed to dance, however she was in her own element. I'm not sure what Marin was imitating here...but it was quite entertaining.
Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed watching the kids dancing around and acting silly.
We were treated to a fantastic lunch consisting of traditional Quebec dishes. We were served family style, all-you-can-eat with the following dinner:
Farm-Style Crusty Bread (the "band" told us not to eat too much bread and we thought he was telling a joke!!) followed by Mountaineer's Pea Soup, Canadian Salted Back Bacon (cooked perfectly crispy), Québécois Maple-Smoked Ham (I swear it melted in my mouth!), Wood-Fired Baked Beans, Farm-Style Omelette, Traditional Meatballs Stew (delicious), Country-Style Sausages (to die for), Old-style Mashed Potatoes, Meat Pie from Quebec's Beauce Region (Tourtiere), Homemade Fruit Ketchup & Pickles. And finally dessert: Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Sugar pie (needed more room by this point, for another pie!!), tea and coffee.
Marin is a bit of a picky eater still and refuses to try anything new. Luckily for her, I managed to force a little bite of sugar pie into her mouth and there was no turning back! She was hooked!
After we were full, we were directed to the bakery where we were shown the amazing hand-built, wood-fired stone oven . It was approximately 12X8 inside and was capable of holding over 100 loaves!! The bread was fantastic and the baker comes in each night to bake for the next day.
Here are Katrina with Sarah and Gus, Adam, Marin, Calli, Grandma and Grandpa standing in front of the oven.
Calli listening intently to how an old wood-fired bread oven operates.
Moving on, we were shown the actual Sugar Shack, where all the sap is taken in from the buckets and boiled into syrup. It then passes through a fine felt filter and is bottled for consumption. They also make maple butter!
This particular Sucrerie has approximately 2500 buckets out on trees during this time. They have a team of people who collect them daily, to be emptied and boiled. The weather has to be just right for the whole process to work. They require warm days and cool nights to get the trees flowing properly otherwise they end up with what looks like ice in the buckets. If you were to taste the water/ice in the buckets it would taste like sugar water.
After this we headed back outside to taste maple taffy on snow! The troughs (lovely) were filled with fresh snow and then drizzled with little piles of maple syrup. We were given sticks with which to roll the taffy onto and attempt to eat it without getting it all over ourselves! I think we came out stickier than the syrup in the end, but it was WELL worth it!!
We looked around the gift shop and saw some neat stuff, but I only came away with Maple tea. I DO have some will-power.
Here are the horses waiting outside the gift shop to take us back down to our cars.
As far as the eye could see there were buckets attached to the trees. You could hear the men working at tapping more trees while we moseyed around the property. It was another great adventure and another thing for the kids to learn and experience. Calli did tell us that her favourite part was eating the taffy from the snow! At least she got something out of the whole experience!!!
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