Sugar Shack

Last weekend, Orphé picked us up at my place at 11 to show us a Canadian experience. We drove out of Montreal; there was far between houses, and the road seemed to be endless, slicing its way through snowy fields before ending up in a small cluster of trees. A sugar shack, Orphé informed us, is a truly Canadian thing; a wooden hut placed far out of civilization where you go to eat pork, eggs, potatoes - all lathered in maple syrup. We'd brought beer and maple whiskey, and we were drunk before 13 (so no arty pictures...). The parking lot consisted only of pickup trucks, everyone was slightly overweight and wearing cowboy hats (?!), and us three Danes were baffled. There was also a mechanical bull. All in all an interesting peek into Canadian (Québecois) culture...

 Thomas did his magic.

 After eating, we headed out in the little forest where the trees were equipped with buckets. Sweet maple water leaked into the buckets, and we tasted a little. It wasn't bad.

Inside a little wooden hut, some old men with beards made syrup in all kinds; syrup that hardens to make a caramelish spread, syrup to smear on ice to make candy, syrup to drop over pancakes...