As a child, my impression of Quebec was not very flattering. Firstly, there’s the whole French thing. Secondly was the “fact” that, in my mind, the only thing holding the USA back from our inevitable unseating of the Soviet Union as the largest nation (in area) in the world were those crazy French speakers preventing the rest of Canada from becoming our 51st state. Needless to say, I didn’t know many Canadians.

Since then, I like to imagine that I’ve become a little more worldly. After all, in college I learned that Quebec also has legal underage drinking and strip clubs. However, despite my wealth of information, the province remained on the whole a mystery to me. I didn’t even know what people from Quebec were called: Quebecites? Quebecers? Quebecians? It took dating one to find out the real term (Québécois or Quebecers.)

In the last six months I’ve made the long drive north into Quebec City on a number of occasions and this past weekend was my last visit planned prior to my round-the-world trip. Usually, I spend the majority of my time in the frozen north relaxing, eating poutine, watching DVDs, and most importantly mentally preparing for the seven hour drive home. This weekend, however, I had a mission! Quebec is famous for maple syrup, producing 75% of the world’s total. (Yes, more than Vermont.) It’s possible to visit the maple syrup production facilities, more romantically called sugar shacks or cabane à sucre - a nice way to unofficially start my trip. Of course, I was also attracted to the possibility of finally trying some maple taffy scooped off of fresh snow - a dream of mine ever since I read it described in Laura Ingall Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods:

“Grandma stood by the brass kettle and with the big wooden spoon she poured hot syrup on each plate of snow. It cooled into soft candy, and as fast as it cooled they ate it. They could eat all they wanted, for maple sugar never hurt anybody. There was plenty of syrup in the kettle, and plenty of snow outdoors. As soon as they ate one plateful, they filled their plates with snow again, and Grandma poured more syrup on it.”

That wasn’t exactly how the sugar shack served its maple taffy, but it was pretty close. Things started off with some (extremely) traditional Quebecois songs. I couldn’t really understand them, being in French, but they involved clapping and audience participation and the like. An accordion may have been involved. Additionally, copious amounts of food featured in the afternoon brunch, including crepes and maple flavored ham (good) and orielles de crise (pig’s ears - BAD.) After the food, Jonathan and I rushed outside to get first dibs on the maple taffy.

This taffy or tire sur la neige is produced by boiling the sap from maple trees into a hot, thick liquid and then pouring it on troughs of snow where it mostly solidifies and can then be scraped off and eaten. The flavor is very distinct and not as strongly maple as I would have expected. Instead, there are subtle maple undertones and a strong nutty taste - very good! It’s also much slimier and not as sticky as it sounds. Little chunks of warming snow stick to the maple taffy which serves to dilute the concentrated sugar flavor. I definitely enjoyed eating it.

In an ideal world I would have seen been able to see the process of preparing maple syrup in person. Unfortunately, visiting in early March, it was still a bit too cold for the sap to run. As a result, the maple trees hadn’t yet been tapped and it was necessary to use stored sap from the previous year in making the taffy (which might explain the nutty taste?) In a week or two, the warming temperatures will allow the sugar shacks to replenish their supply of maple sap and begin the production of syrup for the year. Le Chemin du Roy (the facility we chose to visit) still collects sap with picturesque individual buckets rather than series of tubes and pipes like most more modernized and efficient production centers. We were able to see the holes in the trees where buckets will be placed to collect the sap, but without the buckets and sap they just looked lonely.

After making the sweet maple candy, horses were brought out for a sleigh ride! Ultimately, however, my by-that-point frozen toes and the specter of the awaiting 7 hour car ride pushed me towards opting out of the ride and leaving early instead. My apologies to the readers but I assure you… my toes were thanking me.

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While the visit to le Chemin du Roy was the highlight of the weekend, we were also able to visit a bee museum (featuring free honey tastings!) and spend an afternoon cross-country skiing on the golf course outside Jonathan’s house. The trip to the bee museum started off on the wrong foot with us getting irrevocably lost, but our lost time on the journey was made up for at the destination where we discovered the museum portion of the Musée de l’Abeille was closed for renovations.

While this means there are no exciting bee facts or pictures, the museum still offered free honey and inexpensive honey wine tastings. After trying all of the different varieties of honey and honey products, my main takeaway is to avoid buckwheat honey at all costs. It tastes “earthy” which is not a good thing for honey. Dandelion or goldenrod honey are lighter, sweeter, and more recommended.

All in all, this weekend was exactly what I needed to start off my trip on the right foot. A nice of mix of the exotic and the familiar, free honey, delicious maple taffy, and a childhood dream finally fulfilled. No, not the one about Canada merging with us as the 51st state, but tasting fresh maple syrup dripped on snow is almost as good.