Pure Vermont Maple Syrup

As long as I can remember Vermont and what I knew about it, I always thought of snowboarding or skiing in mountains and hippies.  When I moved to Plattsburgh in 2002, I began to know Burlington as a reason for a nice ferry ride, great shopping on Church street, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and better restaurants than what I could find in Plattsburgh.  

Now, I have friends living in Southern Vermont.  They are implants, which means they came from other parts of the USA.  Being excellent hosts though, we got to still experience the true VT experience: maple syrup and the beautiful rural landscape of this state.

Over the weekend, I learned how maple syrup is made.  On our way to the sugar shacks as they're called, it was impossible to not see any trees with buckets hanging off of them.  The kind man working in the shack showed me how he brings raw sap into a huge metal container and boils it.  Once most of it has evaporated out of the shack, they turn a little spicket and delicious maple syrup comes out, ready to eat.

I don't like Aunt Jemima or any of the other fake syrup products, however, pure maple syrup is so delicious.  And oddly enough, one of the sugar shacks had awesome alpacas to check out, too!