We got up close and personal with their award-winning Jersey dairy cows, and their cute calves, as well as seeing horses, chickens, sheep and having a chat with a particularly cheeky goat.
We then took a look around the carefully-restored 1890s farmhouse, which was made even more fascinating by the staff who were on hand to walk you around the house giving interesting insights into late 19th century life in this part of Vermont.
After having my picture taken by a Google Streetview car in the grounds of the farm, we were back on the road and heading towards Sugarbush Farm.
This small, family-run farm at the end of a little dirt road is well known for its Maple syrup and artisan cheeses. The farm provides a free tasting of both of these, so we really couldn't miss this opportunity.
After being thoroughly underwhelmed by the cheeses the US had to offer so far on this road trip, we had high hopes for the cheeses we were about to taste. And my oh my, we were not disappointed.
For the first time, we had a mature cheddar that actually tasted like a mature cheddar. The 6- and 8-year olds were crumbly and sharp, just how they should be. We also tried a blue, a horseradish cheddar, a jalapeno & cayenne cheddar, and a smoked cheese with bacon, and they were all excellent.
The cheese was all washed down with a selection of four different intensities of Maple syrup, which were delicious too. The samples were generous and there was no pressure to buy.
We wandered outside to watch a short video and see the equipment that processed the raw Maple sap, and then took a short walk around the Maple tree grove (or "sugarbush") before heading back into the farm shop for more tasters of all manner of their sauces.
We would have loved to buy loads of different cheeses and other products here, but we are coming to the end of our camping spells and couldn't justify more stuff to carry around, which is a big shame.
It was time to head to our next stop for the night, Inn 32 in North Woodstock, New Hampshire. En route we had one last attraction for the day: Lost River Gorge and Caves. Arriving only an hour and a half before they closed we considered skipping it. At $21 per person, we could have done without the expense too, but decided to do it all the same.
We're glad we did. The caves were a lot of fun, as you will see from the video. Squeezing through the tiny gaps between the boulders was quite challenging at times (especially the Lemon Squeezer) and by the end it felt like you had had a decent workout!
We checked in at the motel and despite earlier saying we'd have a quiet night in, we headed to the Woodstock Inn for a few drinks and some food. It wasn't a late night, however, and we were back at the motel by 9pm to watch a bit of baseball on telly and catch up on some blogging.
The farms looked lovely as did the cows, calves, goats and chickens. Lee’s cow sound was very good but the chicken impression needs a little help ;-) Hope he payed attention when all the girls were vocal :-) The little goat on the ledge was so cute too but convinced he was hoping you’ give him a hand down. Never realised that was how you collected sap for maple syrup.
ReplyDeleteLoved seeing the wooden bridges with roofs on them it reminded me so much of a bridge just like that when I was a kid on my way to my cousin Trudi. Don’t know if you realise but in this video was the first time that a wee stop for both Sam and Lee was mentioned ;-) :-)
Just watching you both going through all these tight caves gave me palpitations. Was there a warning for big or elderly people? Pleased you two young and fit people had a go and always came through. Woodstock hotel looked nice and I am glad you enjoyed what looked a lovely dinner.
Both Dad and I had a good chuckle at lees impressions in the Eagles nest :-)
Love to both XX