Highlights:
Route 100 fall colors *******
Maple sugar sampling ********
Church steeples *******
Ben and Jerry's ice cream! ********
Waterbury, Vermont
Sept. 29, 2008
155 miles and 3 1/2 hours from our last stop
Bob & Jenny's Cross Country Adventure
Day 44
Welcome to
What's next?
Vermont is a place where Maple Syrup abounds and if you are lucky enough to be there in Feb. or March, you will be taken away by the sweet aroma that fills the air as the sap is cooked. Since we were there to see the fall colors, we missed the great smells, but were able to taste the syrup which included 4 grades ranging from a very light (no color) to a dark which had a hint of molassis flavor- yum!! Vermont is also a place where every town has its own ornate church steeple and we eagerly anticipated seeing them as we approached the towns. Driving through the rolling hills of the country and away from the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan areas was where it was at.
Every town greeted us with an ornate church steeple that could be seen from a distance.
Jenny standing in front of Goodrich's Maple Farm.This is what seemed to be a small business, but upon entering, we found out that it was quite a large operation. Having 20,000 trees ranging from 10"- 48" in diameter they are one of the top producers of Maple Syrup for the state of Vermont. In this house was the visitor center, store, cooking station and packing station. Talk about use of facilities. Just above the house were three large tankers which stored the sap that came down from the trees until it was ready to be cooked.
Although this is a picture of a picture, it shows how the maple tree sap is tapped from the trees. It flows to a tanker via the blue plastic tubing. Assuming an 8 hour day, 600 taps (300 trees) produce 600 gallons of sap, making 16 gallons of maple syrup or 2 gallons per hour.
Above is the cooker which cooks the sap . The first Syrup that comes out is Fancy or light syrup. As it cooks longer, the syrup becomes medium grade, Grade B and then finally the Dark grade. How about coming back next year when they are cooking the syrup to take in those aromas? Yum
Seeing signs like this along the road were quite common.
Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream factory. A fun tour which ended with a sample of the flavor Half Baked. Woo- talk about good ice cream!
The Von Trapp family lodge in Stowe. Remember The Sound of Music? Although this is not the orriginal house, it is similar to what the family built when they settled in America after coming over from Austria in 1945.
New England Maple Museum presents everything involved in the making of Maple Syrup.
Jenny along the famous Route 100 which skirts along the Green Mountains.
Reaping the crops of fall.
We wondered why these calves needed to be chained to hutches. Evidentally, a newborn calf will spend the first 9 weeks isolated from mom and others in order to decrease any chance of infection from other calves/cows.
Perhaps free-range calves actually get to kick up their feet and play?
Nature meets the Establishment:
