T is for My Birthday and Vermont Maple Syrup

Hi there my T gang friends. Another Tuesday is here.

Its March and I'm back to work after my week off.  And March means spring is thinking about coming here to northern New England. Thinking being the word, since you can never be certain spring will come until  it is at least April. 

But one exciting thing about March is its maple syrup season.

And another exciting thing about March is that its my birthday month.

In fact last Saturday was my birthday and it was just the kind of day I wanted my birthday to be. My family and I went for a little road trip to Vermont. The hubby, my daughter, myself and the 2 dogs all climbed into the car and we went out for lunch at the Norwich Inn.
Well not the dogs. They  curled up and took a nap.

I had this delicious burger and homemade chips and along with the water I had one of these red ales they make in their microbrewery.
This was the perfect birthday lunch!
After lunch we took a walk over to Dan and Whit's- the general store next door to the Inn.
I've shown you photos from here before,like this one I took last spring.

The sign says that if they don't carry it, you don't need it.
They have everything-food, clothing, toys, office supplies, fishing equipment, books, and Saturday my husband discovered a passageway into the back building which none of us knew even existed.
We kept walking further and further back and finding more and more things.
And since we were in Vermont which is famous for their maple syrup, and since it actually is syrup making season, they had a lot of those supplies in stock.

 Instruction books for novices.

 Empty plastic jugs to fill as you boil down the sap and turn it into syrup.

 Buckets and taps for your trees. You put the tap into the sugar maple tree and then on warm days the sap runs into the bucket. Cold nights and warm days are the key for getting a good syrup making season. Once you get the sap you boil it down to evaporate off a lot of the water, leaving behind the sweet tasty maple syrup.

 If you want to go into big time syrup making you need one of these big boilers.

 And if you don't like the plastic bottles, there are glass bottles. I think syrup is suppose to last better in a glass bottle, but I'm not positive about that.

And  you might need maple sugar candy molds. You boil the syrup way down and when it hardens you get this super sweet candy. A bit is all you need, but it is yummy.
No maple syrup for us, but we did have cake that night when we got home.

I couldn't ask for a better birthday.
And
it was a great way to end my vacation.
Have a great T day everyone.