Hope and Sweetness

We had an amazing day in Nova Scotia yesterday with lots of sunshine and melting and outdoor action. I joined the students for a visit to a maple syrup farm, Rex Veinot's Sugar Shack. 



There were about 80 of us in 2 school buses. My bus must have held the unofficial Brazilian boys choir because they entertained us the whole bus trip, there and back again. Personally, I think a LOT of these kids were so happy to be outside.

We began with a delicious pancake and sausage breakfast complete with all the pure maple syrup you could want. After breakfast, there was ice cream with maple syrup.



We then broke into 2 groups and half walked the 3 km return trip to the 1st sugar shack while the others got to see the process and finished product. The weather was perfect: it was sunny and warm and all around the snow was melting. Everyone was happy, even the kids with inappropriate foot wear. (Keds? Come on guys!)

These pictures show the old bucket and tap method as well as the new process -- lines from every tree being emptied into the blue tubs at sugar shacks where it then gets sent to the central "cooking" shack where the magic happens.

After the tour, everyone lined up for maple syrup toffee. Thickened maple syrup is poured onto clean, cold snow and you take your stick and roll it up. So sweet and so yummy!

And there was also lots of great product to buy:  maple syrup, maple candy, maple cream and maple butter -- soft, creamy, spreadable maple syrup.

This morning, the sun is once again shining which means a day of melting and a day to be outdoors.  But first, I can hear the stirrings of 2 little International mice.  The eggs are boiled, the bacon is sizzling and the biscuits are baking in the oven as we speak, just waiting to be slathered with maple butter. Um ummm!