Mini Road Trip: Maple Syrup Making & Antiques

Partly due to personal finances and partly due to everybody’s “bucket lists” – we’ve decided to explore the city more and do things that are free and just offered up by random people/businesses.

If you look through the newspaper’s online calendar of events – one activity that seemed to pop up all over the place the past few weeks had to do with maple syrup. I guess early March is the perfect time for harvesting and making maple syrup!

One event in particular was at an antique shop in Northern Kentucky. They were making up maple syrup and you could buy products as well as visit their shop.

The shop – Just What I Want – is in Alexandria, KY and is really cute. There are just a couple of parking spots and it sits on a corner where you’d picture Aunt Bea walking out of any house at any moment!

Out back they had a whole wall of photos to show you the process of making the syrup. It’s got quite a few steps – so it can’t really be shown in five minutes.

A lot of it involves boiling…and sitting. That’s an afternoon I could handle – sitting outside just enjoying the fresh air watching a pot boil.

And boil.

They explained the process and had different ones open for us to try. Each batch is unique based on the sap in the tree – so some are darker than others. Cooking times also can change the color. It was interesting stuff!

Then we headed inside the shop which has a great mix of food products (syrup, fudge, jellies, etc…), antiques and artwork.

I really liked a lot of the art/newer pieces – that birdhouse table was so cute!

I also loved this wreath – I’m still thinking about it – might have to make a return trip!

And I’m a sucker for anything retro! Larry said his grandma even had a set almost like this when he was a kid. Bright yellow – perfection for me! I would love to have this in a kitchen!