We headed out this morning to explore Vermont, at least the part we are in now.  Our first stop was Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory.  We got a tour of the place and of course we came at shift change so no live production just a film and talk.  It was great and we got a sample of ice cream.  
 



  They have retired some flavors forever and out back they have a grave yard for them. 

They had two flavors that are not on the market yet for us to sample.  We liked the spumoni flavored best.  

  Next we headed to the cheese place.  Yummy!!!
 
We got a tour of cheese place too.  They we doing a flavored cheese today.  The flavor was habanero (hot peppers).  We were told we my have problems because of the habanero dust in the air throughout the whole plant.  They were right.  People started coughing and having problems that was so the tour had to be stopped.  I had some problems, but others were coughing, sneezing and had watery eyes.  It did not take long for them to recover.  

   This is Rog tasting and tasting and tasting cheese.  We had to wait some for the tour.LOL

   Then off to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill.  We had a sample of their crisp cool cider.  They are experiencing a slow down in production because the apple crop was way off.  I did not here an explanation, but. .  .  The sample was great.




     this is the press they use in the Mill.
   
 They are also noted for their apple cider doughnuts. They were very good.  

   We drove by the capital building in Montpelier, Vermont (put a star on the map for that).

   We stopped at the Moore Sugar Farm to learn all about maple syrup and how it is made. We had sample of the different grades of syrup.  Laura was surprised the great difference in the taste of the different grades.  And we had a free maple ice cream because we took in a coupon we found along the way.  All was wonderful.  At this farm they had a great sense of humor in their presentation and the art on the place.  They loved to find wood pieces and create or see in them things.  Here you see a mounted head of an animal.  
   This is another example of the humor on the farm.  It was very interest and we learned a lot.  
   We were told that some of the maple syrup places still tap the trees and use buckets to collect the sap.  This farm uses plastic tubing and run long lines to the holding tanks.

  
This is one of the holding tanks that used.  

I go go  go and come home tired and try to get the blog done and do things with Laura and the internet is sucky and slow so it things are ify now you know.  We are off to give a wheel chair lap robe away for Vermont and kayak and maybe some more sightseeing.