Prairie Primer: Maple Syrup Field Trip
The lesson guide suggested – visit a farm where maple syrup is being tapped.
Well.
It’s almost ninety degrees outside. In South Carolina.
Must try to think of another avenue.
I remembered a little store on Main Street in Hendersonville.
I’d stopped in before, lured in off the street by a sign that read “maple cotton candy”.
Spun sugar. Oh, how I love you.
I had no idea spun sugar could be improved upon.
Maple syrup. Oh, how I love you.
A completely perfect marriage of melt-in-your-mouth gooey-ness and maple syrup sweetness.
And so I called the number and asked this question, “Could I bring my children to your store for a field trip? We want to learn more about maple syrup.”
I received an enthusiastic yes and we settled on a time and place.
When I told the kids about the field trip their response was mostly flatline.
“Okay,” they said.
And that was about it.
However.
It’s funny how a little maple syrup can change everything.
We entered the store, met the owner, petted the black cat who lives at the store and chatted a few minutes.
Gracious and hospitable, she made us feel right at home. (The owner, not the cat.)
We all watched a video demonstrating the sugar tapping process at the farm in Vermont, Sugarmill Farm, where all of the store’s maple products originate.
The kids held some original early 1900’s metal taps in their hands. We compared grades and learned about the color variations in syrup. We learned the process of syrup from sugar water to syrup to maple cream to sugar. Ma and Pa Ingalls used primarily maple sugar to sweeten their foods. (Store sugar was bought in small quantities and displayed on the table only when company visited.)
And then we got to good part.
The sampling!
Maple syrup. Maple cream. Maple candy. Maple cotton candy. Maple ice cream.
It was a veritable maple heaven.
It was a glorious maple syrup high.
(I think someone should make maple syrup perfume.)
It was informative. It was fun. It was delicious.
Vermontage definitely has a new loyal customer. (More like – six loyal customers.)
Each kid was given a “nip” bottle of syrup to take home.
Of course we had to have pancakes for dinner.
And all afternoon, leading up to the pancake dinner, I had to hear, over and over, “Momma – may I please drink my maple syrup?”
It’s funny, how when you hear a request over and over you begin to think maybe it’s a reasonable idea after all.
