We decided back in January that Chase was ready to start preschool when a spot became available at a friends school. Chase has done very well and loves going to school. Since Chase started, today was his first field trip. Parents accompany their kids on field trips, so we dropped Leah off with a friend and headed to Tollgate farms to learn how maple syrup is made.
When we arrived Chase watched his "chariot" pull up and he was over excited...
There is nothing like a tractor ride on a cold rainy day. Yesterday it was in the 60's and sunny but unfortunately today it was rainy, windy, and the temperature continued to drop as the morning went on. It rained all the way to the farm but lucky for us, stopped raining for the duration of our tour and then rained on the way home.
Once we found the maple trees we got a little hands on lesson on how they extract the sap.
First they find a tree, then they drill a hole in the tree.
After the hole is drilled they tap into the tree and set up a drain into a bucket. Pretty simple, pretty neat. Since they have hundreds of trees to drain and don't want to have to check buckets every few hours they have a slightly more sophisticated system.
They run the tubes tapped into the trees via gravity to very large containers. Once a container is full they take it down to the "sugar shack."
This is where they boil down the sap creating the maple syrup.
Fairly simple process and a very yummy result! They gave us each a sample of syrup in a Dixie cup. Nothing like giving 15 three and four year olds shots of pure sugar. Needless to say we will be having pancakes in the very near future.
