Last Saturday we went to the Cabin de Sucre or Sugar Shack with the Conways. We drove to the little town of Rigaud and drove up into the mountains where they have sort of an old fashioned little village. We drove through the beautiful maple grove and enjoyed the hospitality of a French Canadian pioneer era. The 100 year old barn in which we ate is large enough to accommodate 650 guests. The barn is divided into several rooms. We were in a fairly small sized room.
The walk up to the little village was pretty, but we made a mistake. After parking we should have walked a little ways to the left and we would have had a nice ride on a wagon pulled by horses. Instead, we followed a group of people who went to the right and we ended up trudging up a long hill with snow up to my knees. I was wondering if I would even make it.
It is traditional up here to celebrate the running of the maple sap. The sap is collected and made into maple syrup.
People were seated at tables family style and the meals was served family style too.
The first course was a pea soup made from yellow peas. It was delicious. We also had bread and butter to go with that.
At our table was a very nice and very fun family. They live in Ontario and have attended this event for many years. They are both teachers. Their two daughters were with them as well as a young man who is visiting them from England.
When we first sat down to eat, there were jars of pickled beets, pickles and a relish/jam type of food which they called chili, but it wasn't hot. It was very tasty. They served these 3 things because in the days of the pioneers, that was what the bottled and ate during the winter months.
Wonderful music was piped in throughout the entire meal. I think the live performance was in the big room. I was sorry not to be in that room.
The main course included Tourtiere, a traditional Quebcois meat pie, mashed potatoes with meat balls and gravy, wood-fired baked beans, smoked ham, sausage, and bacon. Traditionally everything is soaked with maple syrup. The syrup is very, very tasty and as unusual as it seems, the meals tasted really good with all of that maple syrup all over everything. We all really liked everything a lot.
The guy with the beard is the owner of the place. He walked around and spoke with many of the diners.
Dessert was pancakes and sugar pie. The little piece on top is the slice of sugar pie that I took. It is super sweet. It kinda tasted like a really sweet Sugar Daddy. I only was able to eat a couple of tiny tastes because of the sweetness.
These troughs were filled with ice and then had maple syrup poured on top. You could take a little popsicle stick and twirl it around in the snow to make a little maple popsicle. Yummy.
All of their bread is baked in these wood burning oven. Papa remembers his Mom cooking in an oven just like this. The beans and tortieres are also cooked in these ovens.
This is the room where they boil the sap. However it has been so cold lately that the sap has not been running. It froze. Normally this room would be filled with steam from the boiling sap. For every 40 liters of sap, only 1 liter of maple syrup is produced. No wonder it's so expensive. I really loved the flavor of the maple syrup. I will buy some before we leave Quebec.
Another shot of the snow and the little popsicle stick.
The tiny gift shop.
This is the wagon that we didn't get to ride. The horses were huge.
This is how the sap used to be collected. This particular place is one of the few that still collects their sap in buckets. Now most places have pipelines that collect the sap and then it runs directly to the sap room. It was fun to see all of the trees with their little buckets. We had a really fun visit.
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