Hanover and Plainfield New Hampshire - Maple Syrple and Covered Bridges

Thursday, June 6 through Sunday June 9, Days 45-48

Staying with Per and Helle in Plainfield, New Hampshire, they began our Friday morning by taking us to the local maple syrup store.  Of  course, the Taylors make their own.  John has a hat from here that Per sent him after John lost a hat overboard on a sailing trip  

This is the building where the syrup is made.  They also have a working dairy farm here.  We can
smell it but we don't visit!  Per says people will come ask you if they can tap your maple trees.   Sometimes people just say yes, other times they want to be paid, or will ask for a few bottles of syrup in return.

Inside, Per has a chat with the proprietor, and I explore this display of all the ways you can use maple syrup.  It reminds me that I also saw a cookbook for rhubarb which was 214 pages long!  People can get very creative when it comes to promoting food.  I know something about that !

Here's the signature item!  Its a medium  syrup, not light or heavy, and therefore can be used for more recipes.  Good poured over ice cream, the man says.  Maybe because he also sells ice cream...

As we go on down the road, we go past a very large private boys academy.  These are popular in the upper New England States. As the population of New Englanders at these schools goes down, the slots are being filled by Asians.  This school attracts Koreans. 

There are just over 100  covered bridges in Vermont, and 54 still standing in New Hampshire. Several of them were damaged or lost in Hurricane Irene in 2011.  People don't realize that Irene did severe damage in both of these states, damage which is still being repaired.  Per and Helle point out a lot of the residual effects as we go along the way.  We are literally straddling the border of New Hampshire and Vermont, separated by the Connecticut River.  Go figure!

Dartmouth College is in Hanover, New Hampshire.  It is the smallest of the Ivy League schools, with a student population of around 5000.  Graduation was going on while we were there.  Dartmouth is known for its Tuck Business School, and for its medical research.  It has this large teaching hospital,  Dartmouth Hitchcock in nearby Lebanon, NH, which is considered to be one of the top hospitals in the country in adult specialties.