Today was another really busy day. We left the campground early and our first stop was the little waterfall in the middle of Marshfield. It was very picturesque and made for a nice warm up walk to the top and then a nice view point from the bottom.
Then we went to the Martin Bridge which was restored using as many original timbers as possible. It's a classic. The bridge is only for walking these days, but at one time it enabled farmers and their hay wagons to get across the river.
Joel and our club president Sharon.
We continued on to the countryside and passed these purple cones. The roots are used in the supplement euchanasia (sp?), which is suppose to boost your immune system.
The purple cones were growing by the Coburn Bridge which has an interesting history. We met the owner of the flower field and she said the Coburn Bridge was originally a privately built bridge built by the land owners so they could cross the river. Most of the bridges were built by the state and maintained by the state.
Next we went to Braggs Maple Farm and learned how maple syrup is made.
The trees are tapped and the liquid is immediately brought to the sugar house and boiled down to a syrup. During the early season, there is a lot of sugar in the liquid and the syrup is a lighter color. As the season progresses there is less sugar in the liquid and it takes longer to boil and thicken and the syrup turns a darker color and has a different taste. It talks nearly 60 gallons to make one quart of syrup in the latter part of the season. Trees that are at least 40 years old have one tap. There are Sugar Maples in their orchards that are over 350 years old and they can sustain up to 4 taps.
This is the boiling table. Look at all the buckets, clean, and ready for next years harvest.
We treated ourselves to a creamy. A creamy is a soft serve ice cream which has been infused with maple. It is much creamier than regular soft serve ice cream.
Oh, but the day is not over. Next we took the back roads to the Grand View Winery for wine tasting.
They do have a grand view.
The Grandview Winery makes fruit wines including Strawberry and Rhubarb, Raspberry Apple, and hard cider. The tasting included 5 or 6 wines which were all good. I thought maybe fruit wines would be really sweet, but they weren't. I had a hard time choosing which one I like best. Joel really liked the Strawberry Rhubarb and Raspberry Apple, so we picked up some.
Our final stop was at the Cabot Creamery where different cheddar cheeses are made.
These are jalapeno curds getting readied to be pressed into blocks.
One of the machines was decorated like a cow. The milk used in their cheeses is all produced locally.
The curds are pressed into blocks and wrapped. They are still warm at this point.
Then they are boxed and taken to the aging room. We didn't get to see the aging room, but the different cheeses are aged for up to two years, depending on the type.
This was the most fun part..tasting all the different types of cheddar cheese. They were pretty liberal with their samples and I think there was a sample of each cheese they make. I don't see much Cabot Cheese in the west, and when I have seen it, it's been in Walmart.
OK, I guess we could say we had lunch on the road today. Ice cream and maple syrup and then wine and then crackers and cheese. Tonight was burn your own pot luck night so we all rushed back to camp
to prepare a dish to share and prepare to eat more. I see a long hike in the future to burn some of these calories. What a life!
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