At long last the winter has ended and spring has begun! While it may still be fairly chilly, we decided to do something to celebrate the upcoming season and what better way than to incorporate some maple sugar? Since as far as we know none of our friends are in the sugaring business nor will you find any metal buckets on our trees, we decided to do the next best thing: eat some maple syrup! The decision where came more naturally so we headed out to the countryside to Parker’s Maple Barn in Mason.
Several years ago we had visited and we were glad to make a second trip. If you aren’t familiar with the area, you will think that you are lost but follow the signs on the winding backroads until you stumble upon the rustic barn. We went out 101 west to Route 13 through Brookline. We knew we were on the right road since we followed the line of cars making the same journey.
To say that we arrived at a crazy busy time would be an understatement. I dropped my wife off so she could put our name in for a table and I luckily found a parking spot quickly. When I caught up with her she mentioned that we should try to find another option because the wait was between 1.5 to 2 hours long. I pointed out that there wasn't much else in the area and we could go to their gift shop or watch the maple sugaring in the mean time so we decided to stay.
By the time we were seated I was ravenous and knew that I was going to eat a lot. During my last visit here I got my biggest breakfast ever, The Parker Special, which is double of just about everything on their menu. If you are starving, go for that. On this trip I went a little smaller but still a large breakfast with their eggs Benedict and a side of link sausages.
Nicely poached eggs, thick Canadian bacon and a beautiful creamy hollandaise sauce to complete the ensemble. I recommend dunking your home fries in the hollandaise.
We asked about the seasonal pancake and were happy to learn that it was maple walnut so we ordered one so that we could try some of their syrup.
We both enjoyed the flavor of the pancake and of the maple syrup, of course!
My wife ordered the Irish eggs which is an eggs benedict but homemade hash replaces the Canadian bacon of the traditional one. The hash was delicious and you could tell that it wasn’t from the can!
We really enjoyed our second trip to Parker's Maple Barn. During maple sugar season, the lines are very long especially on the weekends. We understand that the best time to arrive is either before 8:00 am or after 2:00 pm to avoid a long wait.
