Friday, March 25, 2011

Maple Syrup

How does that saying go?  “If you can’t beat them....join them!”  Well for some reason winter has had a resurgence here.  It had been warming up and the snow started to melt and then, POW, more cold and snow.  Oh well we made the best of it last weekend.  We met up with the awesome Palmer’s and took all four boys to get Maple Syrup.  Matthew’s Maple Syrup is located in Powassan which is only about 20 minutes from North Bay (http://www.matthewsmaple.com/Welcome.html). 

This was a fantastic family activity.  The kids had a blast and it was educational at the same time.  We took the horse drawn sleigh ride through the trails.  The driver (hmm is that what you call the man who steers the horses?) was super friendly and talked all about the process of collecting the maple syrup.  I was shocked to learn that they have people who manually walk to 15,000 trees to tap each one of them.  They then have to hang over 60 km’s (I repeat 60 km’s) of tubing from tree to tree.


  As the weather warms up the sap starts to run to their main sap house.  The sleigh ride was absolutely perfect.  I had not been on a winter sleigh ride since I was young and it was great to experience it again.  The kid’s absolutely loved feeding the horses. 

                


 The horses were so docile and calm. 







 The scream of delight as the horse would take the hay from their hands was laughter for your soul. 



















 We had toffee again, I know crazy two weekends in a row.  This time they put the syrup out in strips and you wind your stick in it to make a sucker type treat.  Boy was that good! 



 There was also an inside tour that talked about how the actual process of getting the maple syrup from the sap.  They also explained the difference between the extra light, light and medium maple syrup and allowed us to taste test and determine which ones we preferred the most.  Another interesting fact that I didn’t know, it takes approximately 40 litres of tree sap to make just 1 litre of maple syrup. 


They are off!
The expression on his face just makes me smile!  He was obviously having a good time!



After the sleigh ride all the boys were still having a great time so we decided to take a little hike around the trails. 

 I can’t say it enough; it was just a perfect outing!  Smiles and laughs all round and we all enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate when we got home J
I couldn't help but add the picture of cutie Colin!

5 comments:

  1. Fantastic photos!! Following you from the Canadian Blog Hop - look forward to your posts!

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  2. That looks so fun :)
    Following you from the hop
    talesofarantingginger.com

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  3. Great Pic's. My hubbie used to make syrup from the trees. Following your gfc and I am from the Canadian hop. From http://simplyshopandsave.ca and feel free to enter my Spring giveaways!

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  4. We did this last year, but it was much warmer!

    Found you on the Canadian Blog Hop.

    Kathleen
    www.coulditbeceliac.blogspot.com

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  5. Thanks for linking up with the We are Canadian blog hop. I am a little behind this week, but it's been a tough one. I am following back now!
    http://www.theknitwitbyshair.com

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