The Best of What's Around

It is traditional in Feb-April in Quebec to go to a Cabane à Sucre, aka a sugar shack, or sugar house. It is when the maple trees are harvested of their fantastic sap and maple syrup is made. There are many, many different sugar shacks around the province. The one I went to when I was 15 was more traditional; there was Quebecois music and dancing (yay to wooden spoons!). This one was a bit more modern and they had a dance party for the kids which had a remixed version of the hokie-pokie. Great.

We went to the cabane à sucre with people from the Genetics department in the McGill Hospital system. It was nice to see my supervisors and the doctors in a more casual atmosphere. The first thing that we got as we arrived were these awesome maple syrup doughnuts. It was hard not to keep going back for more.



We all sit in a huge hall at these big long tables and eat traditional (mostly edible) food.
The food was alright, but you don't really go for the breakfast. You go for the syrup. They spread the maple syrup on snow. As the syrup hardens, you take a Popsicle stick and roll it up so that you have syrup on a stick. Tasty.



We went for a carriage ride around the érablière and saw buckets full of maple sap.

Overall, it was a fun field trip. Something that really only needs to be done once a year. Here is a pic of six of the eight GC girls.


"Sweet sugar lips, Push from the hips, Woman looks just like love" - DMB

Labels: 2007, GC girls, jeff, Montreal, rachel