Sugarhouse...Yum!

TRAVELERS WOODS of New England

Bernardston, MA 01337

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RV LIFE: The other day a motorhome pulled in opposite us. I noticed a banner on their window "GEEKS ON TOUR". Of course, I had to look it up on the internet.  Found their site, left them a message stating we are neighbors. The next morning we introduced ourselves, they gave me a tour of their full time rig and the custom furniture mods they had done by FOCAL WOOD PRODUCTS Amish crafted in Indiana. Here is their post with photos of their custom furniture mods.

Geeks on Tour give seminars at RV Rallies, on how to set up WiFi, how to wire your rig, tips on how to use PICASA, which I need. They are definitely full of knowledge!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The camp store was selling produce from a local farm, so we picked up just a few items.

Everything was delicious! The corn was on the sweet side and CRISP! The tomatoes were a rich red, sweet and juicy. The strawberries could have been sweeter, but still really good when I added sugar and made a sweet syrup that is great over vanilla ice cream.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I thought this was a really cute idea for a seasonal site.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

STORE REVIEW: The camp store had a flyer for PARADISE FARM SUGARHOUSE. The flyer listed about a dozen different pies and other home made bakery items. (I'm never gonna lose weight). 

First, what is a Sugarhouse? Here's a clip from Wikipedia...A sugar house, also known as sap house, sugar shack, sugar shanty or sugar cabin. It is a semi-commercial establishment, prominent mainly in Eastern Canada & New England (USA). Old sugar cabins can be found on properties belonging to the first settler families. Like the name implies, sugar houses are small cabins or series of cabins, originally destined to belong to certain private or farm estates, and where sap collected from sugar maple trees is boiled into maple syrup. Often found on the same territory is the sugar bush, that is intended for cultivation and production of maple syrup by way of craftsmanship (as opposed to global mass production factories build for that purpose in course of the 20th century).

Ok, back to Paradise Farm Sugarhouse. OH MY GOSH!!! THE PIES!!!!!! I'll save the best for last.

First it's a cute rustic, old building. There is a covered porch to sit and have a cup of coffee with your bakery item.

Upon entering the store, the woman behind the counter says..."I know you!"  I look at her confused. "You have the two beautiful dogs!" Again, I look at her confused. Ends up she has an RV at Travelers Woods. Not only does she have a seasonal site there, she is our next door neighbor.

I took my time looking at all the many items she has in her gift shop. Lots of crafty items, jarred jams, sauces, etc. She had cold bottled Maple Soda. I was tempted, but since I don't like Creme Soda, I figured I wouldn't like Maple Soda, but I thought it was unique. I picked up some REAL maple syrup.  I must admit, real maple syrup is a little potent for my taste, so I sweeten and cut the strong flavor with store bought "pancake syrup". Did you ever notice the syrups in the grocery store are mostly "pancake syrup", not "maple syrup"? That's because you'll be lucky if there is any maple in it. You might find some with 2%. That's it. Most syrup is corn syrup & coloring. Mixing the potent real maple syrup with the pancake syrup crap, make for a nice medium maple flavored syrup.

I finally got to the little bakery display. Not too many items, but enough of a variety for me to get really excited, but not overwhelmed. Some cookies, pastries, scones... 

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES: I opted for one chocolate chip cookie. It was oversized and moist. I enjoyed it with a cup of milk.

PASTRY: I also picked out a raspberry pastry and a blueberry/cream cheese pastry. Scott & I split them so we each had a half. Delicious breakfast.

SCONE: Also had the Peach Scone for breakfast. I would love to have some more of those.

Picked up some packaged fudge produced by MAPLE CITY CANDY. This was not made at this sugarhouse, and we could tell. The fudge was dry and too sugary. I threw out the chocolate walnut fudge, but am slowly eating the peanut butter fudge, even though I've definitely had better, but...well...it's peanut butter...still tasty.

I was disappointed that there was only one pie left at 3pm. Her husband happened to be in the store and said, :Oh, she can make anything you want and bring it to your RV! I considered, but then thought Blueberry Crumb Pie sounds pretty good, so I took the last pie.  She threw in a couple of sugar coated apple cider donuts and also some day old, non sugared donuts for my dogs.

DONUTS: The apple cider donuts were another absolutely delicious item.  

PIES: But the best item of all is (or was since it is now all gone), the pie. First thing you notice is how heavy it is. She really packs in the fruit! What a fabulous pie! This may have been the best pie I have ever had! There were so many blueberries and the juice/syrup that dripped from the slice was wonderful. The crumb topping was wonderfu! She doesn't scrimp on the crumble. Lots of brown sugar. Yum!! We served this slightly warm with vanilla ice cream on top. This pie was so delicious, we had to order another pie. This time we're trying the Peach Crumble Pie. This pie is also heavier than expected. I put it on a postal scale and the pie weighs THREE POUNDS!!!
*update 8/4/12: Had a piece of the peach crumble pie for dinner last night. Another delicious pie. I do prefer the blueberry over the peach. I think because the peaches are larger pieces and more difficult to cut the pie.

I think this place should be called Paradise Pies and Sugarhouse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SITES: We have been quite lazy these couple of weeks. It's been mostly too hot for us to enjoy the outdoors. We're quite picky about temps. Over 75° and we stay indoors. So even though this is a beautiful area of the country, with the GREEN mountains that I love (as compared to the brown/barren mountains of the west), we have spent most of our time indoors. 

We did find a couple of Geocaches yesterday. They were both small and the contents were wet.  I prefer the larger sized caches, with a pad to write your comments in and items to review and maybe trade, or room to add our own personal item. One cache was right across the street from the RV park entrance and the other was about 3/4  of a mile down the road. I earned a MA souvenir for this Geocache.

That's about as much site seeing as we've done. But as long as I can get over the guilt of "being lazy", I've been enjoying my time inside in my lounge/rocker, knitting and reading. Yep, I've become a little (well, not so little anymore) old (well not that old) lady.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PRODUCT REVIEW: Spend, spend spend as my Father says while shaking his head back and forth.

Scott just purchased a COBB Premier Portable Stainless Steel Grill and Smoker. 

This is because we are very unhappy with our Webber Gas Grill. 

Scott likes to cook on the grill, not just grill burgers, etc.  The Webber does not hold a consistent temperature.

First thing Scott cooked on the Cobb was a whole small chicken. Yum!!!! Easy to cook, and the end result is a moist and smokey flavored chicken. Yum!!

Second item cooked on the Cobb were ribs. He put a heavy rub on them and cooked. Not as tender as I'd like, but the meat did easily come off the bone and had that smokey flavor again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

PETS: Devin is still having residual problems from his cheatgrass incident way back in Boise, Idaho. We have an appointment with our "home" vet in NJ next week. His paw is still swollen with a hole in it. Scott squeezes but just a bloody liquid comes out, so hopefully that means no infection.

While visiting my friend who just moved from NJ to here in Mass., she told me about her yellow lab's female problems. 

(Published with my friend's permission)

My female dog had been getting recurrent UTI's and licking  at her hind end. The surgeon and internist  told me that she needed a  VULVOPLASTY (ie hoohoo-lift). So, after clearing up any infections she had, the surgery was done. Now I'm the talk of the new neighborhood--

my house is undergoing major construction and is not even finished, 

the landscaping is not done, but ...

my dog's vagina looks beautiful...feel free to snort on your wine here.