‘Maple Syrup’ Articles at Sweetnicks

Visit: Sugarbush Farm, Woodstock, Vermont

September 15, 2015 · Narrative

A quaint farm tucked away in the hills of Vermont, with cheese tasting, animals to pet, and maple syrup as far as the eye can see. It’s a great spot to visit if you find yourself in Woodstock, Vermont.

If you’ve been a long-time reader here, you know how obsessed my daughter is with animals of all kinds. So when a friend mentions a farm an hour’s drive from where we were staying in Vermont in August, it should come as no surprise that we hopped in the car and away we went.

Which is how we found ourselves at Sugarbush Farm in Woodstock.

At the end of a windy, you’ll-secondguess-you’re-going-the-right-way road, we pulled into the small gravel parking lot and were immediately greeted with a fenced area with cows and goats waiting to be pet … and fed.

And that’s how we killed the first forty-five minutes of our visit.

Once their grubby little fingers were done hand-feeding the animals, we bathed in hand sanitizer and made our way inside the farm store. As soon as we entered, we walked into a room where staff was busy packaging up their cheeses. It was fun to watch the process of cutting, storing, and waxing the cheese.

An employee greeted us and offered to do a tasting with us. And, well, cheese is totally my happy place, so I was on it like white on rice.

All different types, aged for different lengths of time, it was hard not to walk away with one of everything. I narrowed it down to just one, as hard as it was, and we picked a long-aged Cheddar, one that both the kids and I loved.

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Visit: Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks {Montpelier, Vermont}

June 9, 2015 · Narrative

If you’re looking for legit maple syrup in Vermont, the quiet and quaint Morse Farm in Montpelier is the perfect place to visit.

When I was researching things to do and eat in Vermont, maple syrup was, of course, very high on my list. Any time we visit someplace new, I always try to seek out and bring home the food items that that region is most known for.

So maple syrup, of course.

Funnily enough, I rarely use it myself. I don’t like pancakes or waffles, but the kids do. I’m not sure they can quite appreciate the difference between the “good stuff” and the garbage, but side-by-side comparisons, and getting a chance to visit a maple farm certainly help with that education process.

We had to go through downtown Montpelier to get to Morse Farm, as it sits a little on the outskirts of town. Montpelier was quite adorable. Quaint little boutiques and eateries and very much a small town vibe that was, surprisingly, bustling.

I took careful note of everything in the downtown area because, at the time, our car wasn’t terribly happy. I don’t know what was wrong with it, but that day in Montpelier was the first mechanic and garage we had seen on our trip, so I paid attention to where they were located, and what we could occupy ourselves with nearby, should they need to work on the car.

Thankfully, it wasn’t necessary.

Montpelier is also home to the Vermont State House, which we stopped to visit. It is one of only eight state houses in the country that has a gold dome.

Following the Waze directions to the farm, there were some hills and windy roads, and then eventually a gravel path led us to the farm’s entrance. It’s a little under three miles from the downtown area, not far at all.

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Maple Roasted Vegetables

March 26, 2009 · Narrative

I have three words for you. Maple. Roasted. Vegetables. Sometimes I say everything is better with bacon. Sometimes it’s bourbon. Paula Deen would say it’s butter. But now I think we need to add maple syrup to the list.

We had company for dinner tonight, and it was my friend’s birthday. For the appetizer, main course and dessert, I stuck with tried-and-trues, but for the side dish, I went with something new. I know she likes vegetables, so this was the perfect opportunity to try a new recipe, and Maple Roasted Vegetables sounded too good to pass up. The recipe came from an issue of Cuisine at Home that was published around the holidays. It was one of those $10 magazines, and the recipe just may have made the magazine purchase worthwhile all by itself.

Chop up a bunch of earthy root vegetables and toss with a mixture of olive oil and maple syrup. Sprinkle everything with salt and pepper and roast. It doesn’t get much easier than that. I strayed from the recipe a bit in terms of which vegetables to include, mostly because when I ran to the store, they had a pathetic assortment of nothing. No parsnips or rutabaga to speak of, but I did manage to find a turnip. Let me tell you, this is my first and last time eating a turnip. Can you say b-i-t-t-e-r? I added some broccoli florets and yams to the mix and loved that addition.

Simple deep flavors with just a touch of sweetness. You can’t go wrong with roasted vegetables, and maple ones? Just this side of swoonworthy.

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