Maine Maple Sugar Shack
I’ve loved maple syrup my whole life but until I moved to Maine in 2008, to buy the Belmont Inn, a Camden Maine Bed and Breakfast Inn, I had never tasted maple syrup made by cooking maple sap over a hot wood fire. The taste of wood smoke is in the syrup and it’s absolutely wonderful! That’s the syrup I use at my inn for French toast, pancakes and muffins although syrup cooked in closed containers over a propane fire has a clean, pure maple flavor which is particularly well suited to refined preparations like Maple Crème Brulee.
On Maine Maple Sunday, the 4th Sunday in March every year, maple syrup producers all over Maine open their sugar shacks to the public and offer us the chance to learn about how maple sap is harvested and turned into maple syrup. The problem is, whether you’re from Maine or “away” (a phrase Mainers use to refer to everyone not born and raised here), it can be next to impossible to figure out how to get the most out of that one day a year when the sugar shacks open their doors and offer us this unique glimpse into the lives and work of Maine farmers and their families.
Enter, Field Trips for Grownups! I’ve researched the nearby maple syrup farms, driven out to meet the farmers and to see their sugar shacks, and chosen a cluster of 4 farms within easy driving distance of each other, and the Belmont Inn, for you to visit on MAINE MAPLE SUNDAY, March 27, 2011. Combine 2 nights lodging at the Belmont Inn on Friday and Saturday, March 25 and 26; a day exploring Camden on Saturday; a wonderful 4-course gourmet dinner at the Belmont Inn on Saturday evening prepared by Ken Paquin, chef/owner of Atlantica Restaurant in Camden, featuring Maine maple syrup used in some creative, and perhaps surprising, ways; and directions to these 4 very different and interesting Maine maple syrup farms. And take home with you experiences that you’ll never forget! Package prices range from $169 to $219/per person based on room choice and double occupancy, tax not included. Full made-from-scratch breakfast each morning. BYOB (at dinner!).