March = Maples and Mud

I recently read that March means mud and the beginning of sugaring season: when maple sap starts to flow freely. With that description, a big stack of pancakes can't be far behind...

Catching sap from maple trees

Today was a gorgeous early spring day in the low 50s so we hit the road with friends Liz and Tom and drove out to Western Massachusetts on Hwy 2 (a particularly beautiful drive in the fall!) to Shelburne.

We landed at Davenport Maple Farm around 11am and, as we'd anticipated, saw groups of hungry patrons standing in the sun waiting for their names to be called for breakfast. So, we put our names in at the family-owned and community-run restaurant and then headed around to the sugar shack where maple sap was busy boiling away. We learned a bit about the process and perused some of the junk - errr, kitsch for sale.

Before long our name was called and inside we went for Finnish pancakes, blueberry pancakes, and good old plain pancakes with delicious Grade A maple syrup! Yum.

Pancaked, syruped and happy.

Our day trip was super touristy and yet very New England - something that we've wanted to do since moving to Cambridge. Now we can check it off the list! Since we won't be running the Boston Marathon in April, I think the next task is to attend a RedSox game...