Have YOU seen where Marshmallows are grown?

Ripley falls was beautiful, and unlike many of the Falls we saw out West last summer, it had lots of water.

We begin our .5 mile hike to the falls.

We have been on part of the Appalachian trail.

Since I'm usually behind the scenes, Pat said this was to prove that I don't just sit in the car.

A few maple syrup facts. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. North American Sugar Maples provide the sweetest syrup. Each tree provides from 5 to 15 gallons of sap. The sap's flavor and color depends on what time of the season it is drawn. Sap from the tree is mostly water with only 2% sugar. It's boiled or reduced down, aiming for a minimum of 66% sugar in the syrup.

Our first stop was Meridan Maple Farm to learn a little bit about making maple syrup.  It was off-season but Mark showed us around, explained the process, and answered our questions.

These larger pipes go into the forest and branch off many times to reach every tree.  They have over 19,000 trees at Meridan Maple Farms that have to be tapped.

We now have a bottle of maple syrup aged in a bourbon barrel.

Heading to April's Maple we came across the New Hampshire Columbia Covered Bridge, #33.  It was built in 1912 in the Howe Truss style.  It tool us from New Hampshire to Vermont.

Just across the pond is Canada.

April's Maple was a little bit of everything  maple farm, candy maker, and cafe.  

Cyrus had French Toast (2nd time today) sprinkled with maple sugar. I had a chicken sandwich with a cranberry sauce on a house roll.  Both excellent!

Although we didn't go for any maple flavors, our ice cream and sorbet choices hit the spot.

We picked up some candy to test. Cyrus liked the Pure Maple but Samira said it was too sugary.  Is that possible?  I, of course, liked both!

We saw these giant marshmallows in what we guessed was a marshmallow farm.
  Pat said it must take a lot of work to cut them up into the right size.

Where are the Pieper's now? Lancaster, NH