Sugar on Snow

We finally got a light coating of snow and it was actually cold on Saturday, so my sister and I thought a trip to a sugar house was in order.  Barbara is visiting for a few days so we have been relaxing, visiting relatives, etc.  We picked up Anthony and Lucy for a day of fun.

Our first stop was the ECHO Center in Downtown Burlington.  Barbara began her science career as a biologist and it was her first rip to ECHO.  This place is a favorite with A & L so I have a family pass and we go there a lot.

Lucy likes the eel best, but there are enough slimy fauna to make every trip interesting.  The huge snapping turtle was a pretty big draw on this trip, along with information about the spectacular wreck of the canal boat General Butler on the Burlington breakwater in a winter storm in 1886.

Next we drove to Palmer's Sugar House in Shelburne.

Our family moved to Vermont when I was 12 and Barbara was 11.  Up to that point we had never experienced real maple syrup, as we were Log Cabin brand kids.  Real maple syrup takes some getting used to, but once you are hooked nothing else will do.

We went on lots of family trips to explore VT and one favorite was the University of Vermont Agricultural building, very near our house where we first had sugar on snow.

Perhaps you are "from away", so I will explain.   When you think of "maple syrup", what comes to mind?  Forget that Bob Newhart show where Larry, Darryl and Darryl sported the worst New England accents EVER, but, be honest, you think of Vermont, right?  And you should as tiny Vermont is the largest maple syrup producer in the U.S., making 5.5% of syrup world wide.

So, they tap the trees and put the sap into a big evaporator, fire it up with lots of wood and boil away.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.  The finest grade A fancy is the benchmark, but our family prefers grade B dark amber, a stronger flavor.

Anyway, the weather was a little to cold for sugaring as it needs to get above freezing during the day and yesterday didn't quite get there.  But there was plenty of sap in the boiler and when it reached the "soft ball" stage (candy makers, you know what this is) the Palmers helpers poured it onto shaved ice (not enough snow on the ground, alas) and it hardened into sweet, sticky goodness.  Sugar on snow is served with a plain doughnut and a sour pickle.  Yum, yum!  John Holland of Williston was on hand to play old time music and people drifted in and out all day.  You can only get sugar on snow in a sugar house in the spring, after the deep freeze and before it gets too warm, maybe four weekends a year, more if we are lucky.  We left with a big bag of maple cotton candy.