Thursday, April 16, 2009

Fun in the Sun!

We spent most of the day in the wonderful outdoors. I keep wondering how many more field trips we can enjoy before Sumana's surgery sequesters us indoors. So, I'm actively looking for outdoor trips we can enjoy.

Today, Chuck Winship and Pam Masterson of Sugarbush Hollow gave us an incredible tour of a tiny portion of their maple syrup farm. We learned about microclimates, viewed many early wildflowers, listened to a busy piliated woodpecker and of course saw the taps, tubes, filters, cookers and bottling stations. They farm 2500 sugar maples trees. FYI: sugar maples are ONLY found in northeastern North America. We have quite a 'corner on the market' for this first harvest of the season. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. Sugarbush Hollow made 900 gallons of syrup this year. (The kids were doing lots of math!)

Well, I highly recommend visiting them outside of Wayland, NY. Sumana was quite the trooper hiking up and down the hilly forest. She also had her first 'fireman' carry. It worked pretty well to keep us with the group. Of course, we also had to bring home some REAL maple syrup for our pancake dinner tonight. Yum!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you guys had a great time! Keep plugging along getting those appointments lined up. I always say that I need to hire "clerical help" just to make/return phone calls and do paperwork! ha!

    ReplyDelete