Peaceful Valley Maple Farms

 The tapped trees and the lines that ran the tap from the trees to the tanks

More lines.

 View from the carriage ride. Full house of cars and the steam from the sugar shack.

 The horses pulling the carriage turning into the parking lot. The restaurant/gift shop/sugar shack.

 The sap being boiled into syrup and the man behind it all.

 Boiling sap

 Adding wood to the fire. We could feel the warmth from where we were standing when he opened the door.

 Sap. The lines from the trees go into buckets or tanks to collect the sap. Looks just like water!

One forty gallon blue barrel of sap makes one gallon of syrup. Amazing!

Today, my family visited a local "farm" for Maple Weekend. We picked Peaceful Valley Maple Farms because we had been there last year for breakfast and we all enjoyed it. Breakfast this year was even better! They normally serve breakfast Saturday 7 a.m. to Noon and Sunday 7 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.,  with extended hours as needed. We got there today around 11:30am, the parking lot was packed and we were nervous that we had missed breakfast. I had DH run in before I even parked to make sure they were still serving. He came back out and said he put our name in and it would be a twenty minute wait. 
So, I parked the car and took DD1 out to see some stuff. They had carriage rides going and she was excited to do that. DH stayed with DD2 in the car because she was sound asleep. Attached to the dining area is a little store and attached to that is the room where they make the maple syrup. We went in the store and looked into the room where they were making the syrup, then we saw people going in the room from outside so we bought some tickets for the carriage ride and headed outside. As we were walking out I noticed a little stand set up with free samples. We got a fresh homemade corn fritter and poured fresh syrup all over it and some sausage to dunk too, DD1 loved the sausage. We grabbed a piece for Daddy and brought it out to him, but DD1 said how much she loved it and Daddy let her eat it. DD2 was just waking up and the carriage was heading back. I asked how much longer for the table and the lady told me the people were done eating but hadn't gotten up yet, so maybe 15 minutes. DH told us to go on the carriage ride and the lady said she would hold the table. 
DD1 loved the carriage ride. It was about a 20 minute ride up the road showing all the tapped trees and the tank that collects the sap and their barns and fire wood. When we got back from the ride DH was sitting at the table with DD2 waiting for us. Said he had been there pretty much the whole time and DD2 was doing surprisingly well. After we arrived they took our drink order and we waited about ten more minutes for our food. 
The food was AMAZING!! Even better than I remember from last year. Everything is brought out family style on plates and cooked fresh brought out piping hot. There were over medium eggs, pancakes, french toast, sausage, ham, corn fritters, home fries, and your choice of drink either coffee, water, juice, hot chocolate, or milk. Perhaps the best french toast and home fries I have ever had, the corn fritters drowned in syrup were amazing as well. They give you decent sized portions and I think you can order more, which I think we might have if we hadn't gotten there so late. They were cleaning up the kitchen and there was only one other table in there as we were finishing up. We were so full and had eaten so much, but the food was that good. It was $9.00 per person with children 5 and under being free. 
After we finished up with breakfast they took us out to see how sap was collected. A line ran into a bucket and just drips until the bucket is full. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Incredible! They have a reverse osmosis machine that they use to take out most of the water out of the sap before they boil it to take the rest of the water out to make the syrup. They use a wood fire underneath the sap to heat it to boil to make the syrup. They use the water that gets taken out from the reverse osmosis machine to clean the floors and the steamed water to clean their utensils that they use while boiling the sap. 
We went on a final carriage ride before leaving, which I am so glad we did because for some reason the first one we went on the guide didn't go. DH said after the first carriage left, the lady came out and said, "they left already?" The whole time on the carriage ride I was thinking to myself how nice it would have been if the driver could have been telling us what we were seeing. Makes sense now. 
The second carriage ride the owner went on with us and explained to us about the tapping of the trees and the wires and the tanks and the whole process that the sap goes through to become syrup. It was a very educational and fun family morning. So glad we went. 
Peaceful Valley Maple Farms is open through Mother's Day and then reopens for Father's Day. They are only open on the weekends for breakfast, the hours posted above. Next weekend they will have free quarter horse rides.
Maple Weekend continues tomorrow and then again next Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th.