Time for One More in Jacksonville, Vermont

Posted on April 16, 2017April 16, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Jacksonville Vermont Sugar House

After a brief lunch just to prove to my stomach that there are foods other than donuts and sweet maple candy we figured we had time for 1 more stop before the sugar houses began to shut down for the day. Joe pulled up his little map for the next closest Sugar House and found Sprague & Son Sugar House in Jacksonville, Vermont.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h87f71451#h87f71659

I was still looking for the sugar-on-snow, a treat from my childhood. We’d had the snow all day but so far only our first stop had boiling sap and it wasn’t ready to be poured over snow. It had a lot more cooking to do before then.

Sampling more Maple

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h87f71451#h87f71451

Our wintry mix had turned more to rain when we spotted Sprague & Son. They had some nice decorative touches with a wood carving out front and a miniature sugar house.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h87f71451#h87f71455

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h87f71451#h87f7144e

This sugar house was busier than the first two and quite crowded. Their samples were something called maple crunches which looked to me like crumbled maple sugar candy. A great way to recycle broken maple candies. But the big item they were pushing was called Maple Creme. They had a large bowl of it and lots of little wooden spoons. It has a thick, smooth consistency like frosting. Another hit! It wouldn’t take too much of this to overdose on sugar!

The Evaporator

Their evaporator was right there in the main room. Something was steaming but it might just have been water. They said they had run out of sap to boil. They too use the plastic tubing to bring the sap from the trees to the evaporator. I didn’t hear anyone say what they use for fuel but I’m guessing wood if the wood piles outside are any indication. They had some very attractive product displays.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h87f71451#h87f716d1

Joe got the picture of the day here when he noticed a window covered in condensation with bottles of syrup balanced on the panes.

Photo by Joe St. Jean, Take Pride Photography https://www.facebook.com/JRStJeanPhotographer/

Maple Walnut

Behind the cash register was a soft serve machine. The only flavor, why Maple of course! Buy a cup of maple soft serve, sprinkle in some maple gazed walnuts, top with a splash of maple syrup and voila! Maple Walnut soft serve. (that’s for my sister, Sandy).

All About Sprague & Son

I couldn’t find a website that worked but I did find them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Sprague-Son-Sugarhouse-290671490950920/

There was also a nice write up on their history at http://www.whitingham-maplefest.us/sprague.html

Locate at 1631 Rt 100 this was the easiest of the 3 sugar houses to find. Open daily during Sugaring season. Weekends and Holidays the remainder of the year. Free samples of all of their products are always available.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h87f71451#h87f716e7

Dwight Miller & Son, Dummerston Vermont

Posted on April 15, 2017April 15, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Dwight Miller & Son, Dummerston, Vermont

The “wintry mix” was getting worse but neither Joe nor I was ready to call it a day yet.We’d driven all this way and only seen one Maple Sugar House and a quaint covered bridge.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h87f06146#h87f06146

We had to keep going. On Star saved the route we entered before our brief photo stop so it wasn’t long before we had gone around Brattleboro to arrive at Dummerston, Vermont.

Once again we slipped and slid our way along a sloppy dirt road. I could feel the mud pulling at the tires. I didn’t need the little on my dash board. We spotted the plastic tubing first then as we came up a little rise we saw the sign, Dwight Miller & Son Orchards and under that a hand made “Maple Open House”.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h87f06146#h87f0614d

The Sugar House

No billowing clouds of steam here. It was pretty damp and chilly inside too. One car load of people were leaving as we came in and then it was just us. Mr. Miller was quite hospitable. It was clear he enjoyed talking about his work. He gave us the grand tour past huge vats where the raw sap came in from the vacuum tubing to the smaller vats where it was filtered but I didn’t see an evaporator.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h87f06146#h87f0676a

Turns out it was outside and it was huge. This wasn’t a wood burning monster. No this one ran on oil. Right now it was shut down but this was a true commercial operation.

Back out front there was a tasting table. On the table were some of the most delectable donut holes I have ever tasted. I think they were cider donuts. They were light and coated in cinnamon sugar. The sign said 1 per person but like the potato chips, it was hard to eat just one. A jug of cider with little cups rested next to the donuts.

The Taste Test

Like a wine tasting, tiny little paper cups were set up with 3 different grades of syrup. As “Dwight” explained the different grades I slowly sampled each one. To my surprise my favorite was the “Golden”. The lightest color and the lightest taste. I thought I’d like the strong dark one but no, the light one was the best.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h87f06146#h87f06794

This sugar house and orchard concentrates on maple syrup only. No candy, no maple creme, no maple coated nuts. Just syrup. When I asked why, I was told they had so much demand for their syrup that they couldn’t produce enough to have the other lines of products. So obviously this was where we bought the syrup for Joe’s sister, Bobbi-Jo.

Where to find Dwight Miller Orchards

Dwight Miller Orchards is located at 511 Miller Rd, Dummerston, VT 05301.

The Sugar House at the Robb Family Farm

Posted on April 13, 2017April 13, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 4 Comments

The Sugar House at the Robb Family Farm

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h876d3988#h876d3988

Stepping into the Sugar House at the Robb Family Farm was like stepping back in time. The rich maple aroma washed over you immediately. Who cares about maple syrup. Lets just make a perfume like this…heavenly!

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h876d398e#h876d398e

The Sugar House is made of wood; wooden floors, wooden doors, wooden tables. Take a right as you enter the shop, push open a wooden door and you are right where the magic happens. Most of the room is taken up by a huge furnace or stove or I’m not sure what to call it except what it is, an evaporator. It’s a huge fire box with large, shallow pans to boil the the sap into the thick, sweet, gooey goodness we all love on our morning pancakes.

From Sap to Syrup

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h86c0b70f#h86c0b70f

It takes an amazing amount of sap to make even 1 quart of syrup. Usually about 40 gallons of sap are required to produce one gallon of finished syrup. This evaporator is burning wood for fuel which explains the huge woodpiles we saw as we came in.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h86c0b71a#h876dafc7

It’s a feast for the senses. Imagine the smells of a wood burning fireplace with a strong overlay of maple.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h86c0b71a#h86c0b71a

To the right of the evaporator was a small table with maple cookies and homemade donuts, free samples. I especially liked the cookies. One of the maple farmers was watching over the process and explaining everything to the crowd as we filtered through.

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h876dafc2#h876dafc2

Vermont Maple Sugar Products

Back in the shop I had to choose. Did I want a big maple leaf or a small bag of maple candy or something in between. It all looked so good and of course it smelled good so it’s hard to resist.

Some History

It’s no wonder the Sugar House looks old. The Robb Family Farm was established in 1907. For 105 years the farm was a commercial dairy farm but in 2011 the farm became victim of the badly fluctuating dairy prices and milked its last cow. That was when they began to concentrate on the Vermont Maple Syrup products.

The farm also shifted from dairy to beef. Now you can purchase naturally grown and fed beef, no antibiotics and no hormones. I haven’t tried Robb Family Farm beef but we raised our own beef when I was growing up and it definitely tastes better than the standard grocery store beef.

What a great start to our Vermont Maple Syrup Festival! A very traditional Sugar House with a wood burning evaporator, yummy maple cookies and donuts and a warm, friendly atmosphere.

I don’t know if the Robb Family Farm is open to visitors or tours when it’s not the big Maple Sugar Festival but they have an online store at http://robbfamilyfarm.com/

I can personally vouch for their maple sugar candy…2 thumbs up!

If you plan a visit they are located at 827 Ames Hill Rd. Brattleboro, VT. 802-257-0163

http://dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com/p362485518/h876dafc0#h876dafc0

Vermont , The Northeast Kingdom

Posted on October 25, 2013October 25, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Actually the Northeast Kingdom is only a small section of Vermont, the northeast corner comprising Essex, Orleans and Caledonia counties. I’m going to address the whole state of Vermont. Vermont is on the YES side of the ledger. Like the other New England States it is close enough that I can take day trips or a scenic drive on my way to visit family in upstate New York. Growing up we had a Sunday afternoon tradition of driving to Vermont to look for deer.

White Tail deer were abundant then, and maybe still are. I haven’t made that pilgrimage in a long time. But back then we’d take a drive over to Poultney, Vermont and drive the back roads of the mostly rural area. As dusk fell the deer would begin to come out of the trees and into the fields and pastures. Sometimes we’d see 20 or more deer, mostly does but an occasional buck would turn up. We’d pull over and pass around a pair of binoculars so we could each take a turn looking.

Sometimes we’d stop at a farm stand and get a treat of real Maple Sugar Candy.

I remember we usually took the Ferry across Lake Champlain. I thought the Ferry was at Crown Point but a few years ago they torn down the Crown Point Bridge and ferry service filled in while the new bridge was being built so maybe I’m wrong about the ferry we took. I was too young to drive. I was just a kid riding with the family.

As an adult living in Massachusetts I often took the “northern route” when I went home to visit. That took me up to Concord NH the across Vermont through Rutland finally crossing into NY via RT 149 . Lately that route has been getting a lot of attention as a hot spot for Bigfoot. As many times as I drove this road I never saw anything remotely resembling a Bigfoot, maybe a cow or horse or two, but no Bigfoot.

Vermont is known for it’s Ski Areas and the Green Mountains. It is absolutely a beautiful state. On my last drive through I stopped at a farm stand for the best apples I have ever tasted. A little farther on I stopped at Quechee Gorge for quick photo op.

One of my high school classmates lives near Mad River Valley . He posts awesome photos of the area on FB. You can check out his work at https://www.facebook.com/pages/American-PhotoArt-Gallery/90884206988

At the nearby Sugarbush Resort known mostly for skiing, I was privileged to play an amazing round of golf. It was hard to stay focused teeing off on beautiful elevated tees, surrounded by vibrant fall colors. It is a wonderful memory even if I’m not the best golfer.

For the skiers you will recognize names like Jay Peak, Killington, Okemo Mountian, Stowe. The first Ski Tow was a long loop of rope hooked to a Model T Ford engine and strung at the base of Gilbert’s Hill in Woodstock. The year was 1934.

I’m running out of space but a few things I still want to do:

Attend the Father’s Day Hot Air Balloon Festival at Quechee Gorge
Attend the Annual Vermont Maple Festival in St Albans
Explore the Long Trail (The oldest long-distance hiking trail in the US)

Vermont is beautiful year round, not just in the ski season. The count now..18/27

Tag Archives: maple syrup

Time for One More in Jacksonville, Vermont

Jacksonville Vermont Sugar House