As mentioned in my last post, we had planned, on the way back from Houlton, to go to a sapping and syrup-making demonstration at Kings Landing Historical Settlement ("Sugar Bush Weekend" was the official name of the event). We got held up crossing back into Canada, and that was annoying--they told us that Kimm and the kids each needed their own visitor documentation, in addition to my work permit. Mind you, (a) this was exactly contrary to what we had been told before--we specifically asked if they needed papers when the whole family crossed for the first time (together) on January 23rd, and we were told "no," and (b) we have been across the int'l border at least three other times since then, no worries. So, this was a drag, but we got it all worked out, and got to Kings Landing a little later than we had planned.
Once at the settlement, we first sat down to a wonderful "breakfast for lunch," which they were serving all day. Bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, but the pièce de résistance, of course, was a stack of pancakes with syrup just boiled that morning. MMMMMMmmmm...
After we ate, we wandered outside to see the boiling cauldrons of syrup and a demonstration on making maple "candy-on-the-snow," as it's called. We also saw (and tasted) the raw sap from one of the tapped sugar maples--very thin and faintly sweet. As I said to Kimm, it's amazing that someone said, two centuries ago, "Heyyy, we could boil this and make a thick syrup, maybe some candy, who knows?" (Except they probably said it in French, as Quebec has the longest history of maple syrup production.)
We then wandered around the settlement and spent awhile at the mill (watching a lovely half-frozen waterfall), and then it was time for the place to close. I don't feel like making a Proper post today, fie on me, so I'll just link to my Picasa album and you can see the pictures (I'll add a little more in the captions). Voila:
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