March 22nd 2015: The Maple Sugaring Festival in Sharon

After picking my friend up this morning, we headed to the Breakfast Club in the Allston area of Boston for breakfast.

I initially thought that it would be impossible to spend $40 here as required by my deal, but somehow we did, getting a large cup of Orange Juice, a Green Tea Tropical (Green tea leaves blended with sweet tropical fruits of pineapple & guava), a Banana Nutella Milkshake,

a Fresh Fruit Bowl,

the Atlantic Eggs Benedict (smoked salmon),

and the Fire Bomb Eggs Benedict (shaved sirloin, spicy hollandaise).

My milkshake was decently good, and the benedicts were actually pretty good, especially the spicy beef one.

After breakfast, we headed to the town of Sharon, where the Maple Sugaring Festival was going on at the Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary. 

Unfortunately, as I had not bought tickets in advance, we would have to wait almost 2 hours for the next available tour, so we decided to head to Raynham to check out the interior of Wat Nawamintararachutis. The main door was shut, but thankfully we chanced upon someone leaving by a side door, and we were able to get in that way. Pictures I took of the interior, which was beautiful, follow.

after leaving the temple, we headed back to Sharon, in time for our tour, which meant walking on slippery snow covered trails or muddy ones to various stations in the woods.

The first one was about how sugar was discovered by the native Americans through the accidental boiling of sap mistaken for water.

The next station showed how tapping of maple trees is done, using a drill

and a specialized pail

to keep out deer and squirrels.

It was interesting to learn that sugar is stored in the roots initially during winter, then sent up the tree when temperatures warm up. In that time period before the buds start coming out, it is optimal to extract the sap then, because it becomes bitter after the leaves start sprouting with the introduction of other minerals into the sap. Also, the tree has to be of a minimum size to be able to survive the brunt of the sap extraction.

Next, we went to see how the filled buckets are carried,

and given samples of maple sugar to try.

Small but intense.

Next, the evaporating room where the sugar content is increased from ~3% in sap to 66% in maple syrup through the evaporation of the water content, which takes quite a while naturally.

It was interesting to note that the liquid has to be at 219F to be defined as adequately concentrated maple syrup, suitable for extraction.

It's just sad to know after all that work, 1 barrel of sap only yield 1 gallon of maple syrup.

With that, the tour was done. At this point, we realized that "Big Hero 6", which my friend had yet to watch, was still screening at the Sharon Cinemas 8 in town, so we seized the opportunity. My second time watching it, and still as good and funny a movie.

After the movie, it was time for dinner in Quincy, where we decided to check out the new place in town, Hakata Ramen, located at 673 Hancock Street.

I was disappointed at the ramen menu for only having 4 choices, despite the name of the place. 3899Nevertheless, we got the Hakata Gekikara Ramen (pork bone chili sauce soup ramen)

and the other only interesting item on the menu, the Eel Burger (with oshingo, avocado, lettuce).

The burger looked pretty simplistic, but it was really tasty, along with the purple sweet potato fries that came along with it.

With respect to the ramen, my friend felt it was the best ramen she has had, and it was pretty good in my opinion as well.

Overall though, the menu is overly simplistic, and the place is too small for me to give it a recommend. Feel free to check it out though.

After dinner, we headed to Yocha nearby for dessert, getting the Ying Yang and the Strawberry Madness (STRAWBERRY PUREE, DICED STRAWBERRIES, SLICED BANANAS W/ TAPIOCA & TOFU PUDDING).

My friend didn't like the sourness of the strawberry, but I actually thought it was pretty good. Still, she felt it was much better than at Sweet Kingdom in Allston, and way cheaper too.


With that, we finally called it a day to end a really fun day which actually only had the sugaring festival being planned.