Mar 6

Written by: Tina
3/6/2009 10:12 AM 

Last weekend we trecked to Southern Indiana to Leane & Michael's Sugarbush for their 2009 Maple Syrup Festival (http://www.lmsugarbush.com/ourfestival.html). It took us about an hour's pleasant drive to get there through winding hilly country roads (after we got off I65). We parked in a muddy field and bundled up against the biting wind. I think the high was something like 28 degrees.

We only lasted about an hour and a half, but in that time Piper got to grind some corn:



Play with llamas:




We also bought a gigantic plastic bag filled with kettle corn sweetened with maple syrup. Then we walked over to the demonstration area. We paused long enough to snap a photo next to the Native American sugar-making exhibit (we wanted to wait to see the demonstration, but it was just tooo cold):



We purchased a gallon jug of grade A maple syrup and sampled some maple sugar candy. Then we stopped to listen to the first part of the syrup making tour where our guide discussed the tree tapping process. She turned on the pump long enough for us to see the syrup flow into the big barrel.





Then we jumped back in the car and pumped the heater on full blast. It was great fun and I highly recommend it. There were a lot of things we didn't get to see. Next year we want to make sure to stop and see the demonstrations and check out the music. It would be fun to take the entire walking tour. And I'd love to stay for the all-you-can-eat pancakes.

So far we've used our gigantic jug of syrup for pancakes and maple cookies (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Maple-Cookies/Detail.aspx). I'm looking forward to lots of pancake weekends. And maybe some bread pudding. And, and, and...

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