Cedar Brook Sugar House, Malone New York

It was the last of the Maple Weekends and I went to visit the Cedar Brook sugar house near Malone, New York. It was obviously brand new and very large:

The cupola appeared to me to be purely decorative. It was lighted inside and was not used for escaping steam. As you can see, the steam was escaping from the vent right behind it:

Inside, they had set up free samples and coffee. A friendly man told me about the family's efforts to build this impressive structure:

In the next room, another man was boiling sap - and it was sure steamy:

I never figured out what was being collected in this bucket, if it was sap to be boiled again or waste. It was far too thin to be syrup:

A red light suddenly came on, but by then my camera lens was too fogged up to take any more photos, so I returned to the retail/office area:

They had many maple based items for sale in the showroom:

And everything was artfully displayed:

There was maple popcorn and maple cream:

Maple syrup and maple cotton candy:

They told me that they made maple peanut butter, which sounded great to me - but they didn't seem to have any for sale, possibly a good thing because I don't need the calories:

I had a second sugar house to visit, just a few miles away, so I left the Cedar Brook sugar house and tried driving to it. After many miles of twisting, mountainous gravel roads and dead ends, I gave up finding the second sugar house. Instead, I drove to Malone and got myself a sub for lunch, eating it on my way home:

The Cornell University Maple Research Center

My sister and I had just visited the John Brown farm in Lake Placid, NY (see yesterday's post) and began driving back to the main road. But we had to stop for photo of the Adirondack high peaks behind the John Brown farm. You can just see the peak of the John Brown farm house above the little shed. As for the mountains, I can't identify them although I probably hiked a good number of them when I was younger:

We could also see the Lake Placid Olympic ski jumps from the John Brown farm:

So before getting back on the main road, we pulled in for a closer look. The picture doesn't convey the immense size of these things. They were impressive!

Before leaving Lake Placid, we stopped at the Cornell University Maple Research Station:

It was very much open, even though they weren't currently boiling sap:

We went inside the sugar house to see the huge, modern evaporator:

Signs explained the operation:

And maple syrup was available for folks to buy if they arrived when the building wasn't open:

And then we went into the main building:

That was a busy place, with a number of people unpacking boxes of empty jugs and then filling them with syrup:

There was, of course, maple syrup for sale - and lots of it:

One man began explaining the operation to us:

They also make birch syrup, so he gave us a taste. The funny thing was that everyone described the taste differently. The man said it was savory, not sweet. My sister said it was fruity. I thought it tasted like molasses. Some people say it has a mineral taste. One thing I can say is that it is much more expensive than maple syrup, largely because it takes more sap per gallon of syrup, but also (I suspect) because there are fewer big birch trees in the forest and a smaller market for it. My sister purchased both types of syrup to take back with her to Ohio. This was the end of our Adirondack excursion, so we headed back to the farm to let the dogs out. They were sure happy to see us:

Wagner Road In Moira, New York - Part 2

I was taking a driving tour of Wagner Road in the rural town of Moira, New York (see also Part 1, posted yesterday). This old barn was in good repair and appeared to be used for horses:

And speaking of horses, this herd were out in their pasture and I had to use the zoom lens to get a photo of them:

An old barn, out behind a more modern house:

Another horse, almost hidden behind a row of trees:

A large, one story barn, probably a cattle barn, which appeared to be unused, and sat behind a recently harvested corn field:

This house still had pumpkins for sale. There was only one $2 pumpkin left, but a good selection of  50¢ and $1 pumpkins for the local trade:

The same house harvested and sold maple syrup:

At the end of Wagner Road, I turned onto County Route 8 and photographed these two barns, one old and collapsing, the other newer and in good shape:

I continued on towards Malone on County Route 8 but stopped for a photo of this autumn corn field:

And one photo of this local resource, the Farm-to-Market Country Store:

St. Lawrence County Fair - Part 2

I was touring the St. Lawrence County Fair in the village of Gouverneur (see also Part 1, yesterday) and arrived at the Poultry Barn. Alas, New York State had banned poultry exhibits because of bird flu, so there were no fancy chickens to look at. But the Poultry Barn held rabbits:

And sheep:

These were Suffolk Sheep and there was also a dairy goat exhibition:

I walked from there to the Maple Syrup Building. This was, after all, St. Lawrence County, one of the largest maple syrup producers in the state:

And then I hit the colorful midway:

It was too early for much action, and most rides were just getting ready to open. But it was a great time to see the colorful displays against a blue, cloud filled sky:

The Monkey Maze looked like fun:

There were rides and slides and refreshments and games and junky souvenirs. The crowds were just beginning to arrive:

Tee-shirts and floor mats with any smart-alecky saying I could imagine:

Lemonade, popcorn, hamburgers, pizza and hot dogs:

But I'd seen everything by then, and began making my way back to the car. I walked between two barns, where a backhoe was cleaning up soiled bedding from the cow barns:

I almost stopped again at the petting zoo, but changed my mind when I saw how crowded it had become. So I continued on to my parked car and headed for home:

Fine-N-Dandy Sugar House

I drove to a sugar house near the St. Lawrence River during the county's Maple Weekend but could not find it. I was on my back home, feeling discouraged, when I saw a sign pointing toward the town of Norwood which advertised a Maple Weekend Open House. Of course I headed that way and, when I got there, saw this wonderful sugar house built of logs:

I remembered that I had been there last year during St. Lawrence County's Maple Weekend but they'd built a new addition for storing maple sap out behind the sugar house since my last visit. Blue tubes transported the sap from the forest to the storage tanks beneath that roof. Mr. Finen, the owner, gave me a tour. The name, "Fine-N-Dandy," is a takeoff on his last name:

Another couple of people came to see the open house so I went inside the sugar house:

I really needed to use the outhouse but would have had to slog through a stretch of deep mud to get there. I decided that I could wait:

Inside the sugar house, there was maple syrup for sale:

And some neighbors, friends of Mr. Finen, who were hanging around and helping where they could:

The evaporator was huge, taking up most of the sugar house:

There was another room off to the side, so I headed toward the doorway:

In that room, a young couple and their two babies were sampling maple syrup, maple covered walnuts and maple cream. The maple cream, a spread with the consistency of peanut butter, was new to me so I tasted it also - and fell in love. I bought a jar of it to give my sister:

And then I went back into the main room where the evaporator was heating sap:

There were several chambers for the sap, and I believe that it progresses from one chamber to the next as it thickens - but I'm not at all sure how that works. I paid for my maple cream and some maple covered walnuts, thanked my host and headed back out to my car: