Vt. Maple Products

Hi everyone, sorry I have not posted in a while, I’ve been really busy! Well today I’ll talk about skiing in Vermont. Downhill skiing and cross country skiing are very popular in Vermont. Tourist come from all over the world for snow skiing here. Vermont ski vacations are one of the busiest times here. Stowe and Killington are two of the most popular ski resorts towns.

Jay peak and Smuggler’s Notch are two other very popular Vermont ski resorts. The ski resort of Stowe has trails up the side of Mt. Mansfield, which is the state’s highest mountain. I’ll talk about all them in more detail in a bit. Vermont gets a lot of snow in the winter, sometimes a bit too much for those who have to shovel it!

But that makes for some great skiing conditions. Vermont has ski areas all over the state, from the very northern part to the southern area. Skiing conditions are almost always just right, with lots of sunny days and gentle snow storms. The views from the tops of the mountains are spectacular. Read more »

Hi everyone, sorry I have not posted in a few days. Today I thought I’d talk about all the great cheeses you can get here in Vermont. There are some that are known worldwide, like Vermont Cabot cheese. Cabot cheese is sold in almost every food store in the US now, and it all comes from Vermont.

But there are a lot of other, smaller cheese farms around Vermont. Goat cheese is a very popular type of cheese, with a variety of flavors and textures. Of course cheese from Vermont dairy cows are the most common. There are many small goat and cow farms that make great specialty cheeses in Vermont. Cheese from sheep is also popular, and we even have water buffalo cheese!

Vermont cheese comes in many styles. Rolls of cheese, cakes, slices, chunks and more. There is cheddar cheese, sharp and mild cheese, monterey jack, colby jack, shredded cheese, mozzarella cheese, swiss cheese and American cheese. But these are just the normal types most people know about. There are many more made by small farmers making great tasting specialty cheeses. Read more »

Well I hope everyone had a great Memorial day weekend. I had a pretty busy one myself. Well, today I thought I’d tell you a step by step recipe on how to use that great pure Vermont maple syrup to make maple sugar candy. It’s really easy, but there are a few tricks you need to know so you don’t make a huge mess! Read more »

I hope everyone is enjoying the memorial day weekend! Me, I’ve got so much work to do I’m not sure if I will be able to relax or not. Anyway I thought I would write today about Vermont’s bed & breakfast Inns. Bed & breakfast Inns are very popular with tourist here in Vermont. They have a charm you just can’t find in a hotel.

In fact one of the most popular searches for bed & breakfast on the net is southern Vermont bed & breakfast. I’m not sure why, as the northern part has the most famous Inns. Anyways I’ll explain a little about just what a bed & breakfast Inn is. They really are the same as that one on the old Bob Newhart show, that was about a couple who ran a Vermont bed & breakfast.

Most bed & breakfast Inns are close to a popular resort town, like Stowe, Killington and others. They are open year round, so they get tourist for the skiing season, fall foliage season and the summer season. Vermont bike tours often use bed & breakfast Inns for overnight stays. Because Vermont is sparsely populated there are not many hotels outside of the bigger cities. So, bed & breakfast Inns are the answer. Read more »

How many have heard of the Vermont teddy bear company? Well in case you did not know, the Vt. teddy bear co. is the largest manufacture of hand crafted American made teddy bears in the USA! They are now worldwide known and make dozens of different kinds of teddy bears.

It all started when a Vermonter by the name of John Sortino starting making hand made teddy bears. At first he had a hard time selling them. Then one day a customer gave him the idea of shipping the bears right to the customers homes, along with some extras. That was the start of the Bear-Gram concept, and it has been growing ever since.

What each Bear-Gram contains is a bear dressed up to reflect a life event, holiday or occasion. It’s placed in a colorful box with air holes, a game, candy and a personalized greeting. Everyone from the old to the young love getting a personalized teddy bear! Read more »

Hiking in Vermont is a very popular activity. The famous long trial runs straight through the center of Vermont, hugging the mountain ridges. This trail is 270 miles long, with 175 miles of side trails and 70 or so cabins and primitive shelters. But there are lots of other trails to hike also.

Up in the resort town of Stowe, Vermont you can find plenty of hiking trails and bike paths. Driving up the mountain road to the top of Mt. Mansfield and hiking along the ridge is very popular. The view from the top is spectacular. Vermont has many small streams that make lots of small waterfalls for a beautiful view or place to stop and eat.

There are also plenty of hiking trails in Vermont that are short, maybe just a stroll through the woods or along a paved path. So there are hiking trails for all kinds of people and abilities. Vermont tends to have a rocky ground, which means most wood trails get worn down to nice solid rocks that make the trail a stair step up the mountains. Read more »

If there’s anything at all that you may have heard about Vermont, most likely it had something to do with Stowe, Vermont. Stowe has been named the ski capitol of the east, with many ski trails off Mt. Mansfield, the states highest mountain. But Stowe is also a year long resort town, with many things to do and see.

Stowe is about a 40 minute drive north from Burlington, Vt. The international airport is located in Burlington, so most tourist land there first. Despite Stowe being such a tourist hot spot, it still is a small town with wide open country and woods to relax in, while still having all the big resort amenities.

Stowe has many world class resorts, bed & breakfast Inns, condos, hotels and even cabins you can rent. Stowe is also home to the Van Trapp family lodge, a magnificent Inn that is owned by the family “the sound of music” movie was based on. From camping to five star resorts, Stowe has it all. Read more »

So how many of you like to fish? Fishing is one of mankind’s oldest and most popular pastimes, as well as a great way to get a tasty meal! Fishing in Vermont is very popular, as Vermont is filled with many Lakes, ponds and streams. Vermont has lots of different kinds of fish, from the little but colorful brook trout to the huge northern pike.

Also, because Vermont is so sparsely populated you can really have room to yourself, not a mad dash to get to the best areas in the morning before the other fishermen. I use to do a lot of trout fishing in the many trout streams here, and often I would fish all day without seeing anyone. Of course everyone has their preferred type of fish and way of fishing.

You can take out a boat on big Lake Champlain or the hundreds of other smaller lakes and troll for lake trout, or hug the cattails and throw a spinner out for largemouth bass. Maybe do some live bait fishing for northern pike or walleye, or lob out some cheese balls to catch some catfish. Of course most people think of fishing in Vermont for stream fishing for trout. Read more »

So how is everyone today, getting through the week ok? I bet you did not know that Vermont is home to some of the best chocolate makers around, did you? It just makes sense really. With Vermont’s quality food products and ingredients, the clear mountain water and wholesome milk from local dairy farms this is a perfect place for making world class chocolates.

Vermont is home to many small family run specialty chocolatiers and other food products. You will not find this in your local walmart, as they are not big enough to produce a lot. But that’s fine, because what they do make is very quality food products that you can buy online right from them. Just like pure Vermont maple syrup, you can only find it here in Vermont.

These Vermont chocolate makers make all kinds of different chocolates. Chocolate truffles, nonpareils, chocolate coin bags, soft chocolates, nut filled chocolates, cream filled chocolates, gift baskets and more. They make them in all kinds of shapes and figures, in fancy boxes or plain paper bags. Read more »

Hi everyone, it’s a beautiful Sunday here in Vermont. Well today I want to write a bit about how most sugar makers collect that maple sap the modern way. Now most people have the image of maple sap buckets made out of tin, hanging from tree to tree with a tin lid over it.

Now a lot of places still do that, even big operations in areas where that is the only way it can work. But today most places that make a lot of that pure Vt. maple syrup just tap too many trees to make that feasible. Heck some places tap over 20,000 maple trees! You would have to hire a crew of 20 to work non stop collecting in buckets.

So the maple sugar industry came up with a practical and environmentally safe way to make collecting all that maple sap a whole lot easier. Now as I’ve said before, Vermont is a very hilly state. You almost can’t find any flat ground around here. So, sugar makers take advantage of the fact that most maple trees are up in the hills above the sugar house. Read more »