For those of you that don’t already know, the last Sunday in March is recognized as Maine Maple Sunday. What a sweet (pun intended!) way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
We headed waaaaay up north to visit Bradbury Maple Farms in Bridgewater, Maine. How do you get there? Well, you head through the woods, down a dirt muddy road, through more woods and then you are there.
During your meander through the woods, you will see thousands of feet of blue lines winding through the trees. These are the lines that connect tap to tap to tap and carry the sap back to the sugar house.
Then you see more blue lines carrying more sap from the 3,000+ taps at the maple farm.
The sap eventually finds it’s way into this building…
Which is where these collecting & processing machines are located…
The sap trickles in through these tubes and into this big container…
Do you see it trickling? Look closely…
Maple season 2010 was a bit better than this season has been thus far. In 2010, the sap began flowing in February. The Bradbury’s were telling us, this time last year they had already collected 640 gallons of sap! So far for 2011 they have collected about 150, gallons as of Maple Sunday. WoW, what a difference!
In addition to seeing the process the sap goes through to turn into liquid maple gold, we also had fun doing lots of taste testing!
We sampled Maple Taffy on the snow…
Because that didn’t satisfy our sweet tooth, we sampled some Maple Cotton Candy…
Then we sampled, my personal favorites, Fresh Made Maple Cream Candies…
Bradbury Farms is the Maine Sugar house that we purchase our maple syrup from each year. Yes, this is the same pure maple syrup we use here at the inn! Now you know what journey the sap has taken to end up here at Clark Point Inn on our Belgian waffles! Sometimes we like to give our syrup a little kick by adding a hint of Grand Marnier or Bourbon …Delish!
These was plenty of syrup bottled up & ready for purchase…
Plenty of the traditional jugs, in various sizes, and some fancier bottles, too!
We are looking forward to visiting again next year and making more sweet memories!
As always, Indulge!
