Sugar shack visit #2

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We decided to head south from Quebec City this weekend to visit the Beauce area. In particular St. Georges de Beauce. This is the headquarters of Comact and Claude wanted me to see the area as it could be a possible future location for us if we were interested. We travelled Friday night - in a snow storm as usual! It had been nice all week but snow rolled in as Claude got off the plane from a week in Ontario. By the time we got to St. Georges, about an hour and half south of Quebec City close to the Maine border, we were in quite the storm. Luckily by Saturday morning it was nice and sunny and we had a good weekend.

Saturday we toured the Comact plant. The boys thought all the big machines were neat, but got bored quickly. Then we took a bit of a tour of the area while they napped. There is even a covered bridge just out of town, but it is for bicycles now and with the snow you couldn't get very close for a good picture. The boys had a good time in the hotel pool and we just picked up subs for supper in the room.

Sunday morning we went to the Cabane à Sucre Aurélien Lessard. Simon had recommended it and it was a fun place. It was very close to town and done up in an old fashioned style. They still collect all their syrup in buckets rather than tubing so it was neat to see all the buckets through the trees. It was a nice warm day so the sap was running. Unfortunately they weren't boiling syrup today so we didn't get to see the boil house. The inside of the Sugar Shack was all done with antiques, so it was a great atmosphere. The food was served buffet style. I prefer the family service at the last sugar shack. It made for fresher food I think. the food was good, but I think it was generally better at Bonne Fourchette. The oreilles de crisse (pork rinds) here were better - not as salty. They didn't have tourtierre, much to Paul's dissapointment, but he discovered that he really liked creton. His grandpapa would be proud. Creton is basically a pork fat and porc meat pate, and very popular in Quebec. (Claude calls it poor man's pate). Have to admit I can't get past the pale color and texture to try it. Marc actually ate more here than the last sugar shack. He liked the sausages and pancakes. Here the dessert pancakes were nice thin crepes instead of the fried ones a the last place.
One neat part here was they had an old wood stove for you to make toast in. The stove was hot (fed with wood underneath), and you just put your bread in on the bottom of the oven and it browned beautifully.

With bellies full, we headed outside for Tire sur la neige. Here the tire was done in long troughs of snow. I am actually not a huge eater of maple syrup, but I love the taste and texture of the thickened syrup (tire) mixed with the ice crystals. It is so yummy. Two sticks full will typically max out your sweet tooth. After that we wandered up to see the Ostrich they have in a cage. The boys were quite facinated that such a bird could live in a cold place. Then it was time for the sleigh ride. Marc had been waiting impatiently for the ride since he first saw the horses out the window at meal time. It was fun to do the ride through the maple trees. the sleigh was pulled by two beautiful work horses (clydesdales I think), and it was a very nice warm day.

As a side note, the french name for a maple plantation is "Érablière". Érable meaning maple. We still haven't purchased our stock of maple syrup for the year as both places we have visited to eat at don't sell their syrup to the public. You can buy local syrup in all the local grocery and corner stores but it would be more interesting to buy from a place we have actually visited. I think my favorite maple product is maple butter. It is thick like creamed honey and is really really good on english crumpets or toast.

We headed from there back toward Quebec City - finally not driving in a snow storm. Our next sugar shack visit will be to take the cousins when they arrive from Alberta for Easter.

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