In the misted of a small New England town tucked away in the forest lies the ruins of Madame Sherri's Castle.
Madame Sherri, was born in Paris France her name was Antoinette De Lilas, she was a music hall singer in Paris when she met, fell in love and married Andre Riela a silent film actor, theatrical producer, also a son of an Italian Diplomat in New York City.
Andre and Antoinette sailed back to New York City, but after a very cold reception, in 1911 they changed there name to Sherri, then became theatrical costume designers opening a shop in New York City making a good living. In 1924 Andre passed away,
Madame Sherri now in her 50's took a trip to Chesterfield N.H. to visit with a friend Jack Henderson, she liked it there so much she purchased a small farm with some 500 acres of land. Madame then built the most extravagant summer castle like home anyone had ever seen, to host wild lavish party's, bring her friends from New York City, filling the forest with music and laughter. It was said there was scandalous things going on there by some of the town folk, like Madame Sherri driving through town with only her fur coat on.
Madame Sherri continued to party until she was broke, in the late 50's she moved in to Maple Rest Nursing Home in Brattleboro VT. On Oct. 18th 1962 the castle burned down leaving only, the stone remains' of a architectural masterpiece. Madame Sherri died in 1965 at the age of 84 and was laid to rest in Meeting House Mill Cemetery, in Brattleboro VT.
At some point Ann Stokes bought the property and generously donated this land for conservation to the Society For The Preservation Of N.H. Come and view the ruins of the castle, bring your hiking shoe's there are hiking trails here, some more strenuous than others but worth it for some of the views. As a homeschool family we sure love the freedom of sharing and finding lost history that was not in the text books. This was a field trip a good friend of mine and a fellow homeschooler shared with our lovely daughters. The girls refer to this as the Madame Sherri's Enchanted Forest field trip.
Jo-Lynn filling her basket 
Eliza and my daughter pressing the grapes though the berry strainer 
even little Sylvia is able to help 
after making jam/jelly fill hot jars 3/4 full screw on covers tight and stand up side down over night to seal 
we like to cut circle out of scrap material, tying them on the lids for that simply country look 
The tapping of about 500 maple trees, is next in line with drilling the holes
hammering in the spout then the buckets are hung and the covers set in place
It is so exciting when you see and hear the first drips in the bucket
We use two types of covers the flat covers and the roof covers viewed below the covers are used to keep rain water and other impurities out of the clear sweet sap
we use five gal. buckets to collect the sap that has run into the buckets we hung on the maple trees
than it is dumped into a gathering tank that sits in the back of a truck, this gathering tank of my husbands holds three hundred gal. when all has been collected or our tank is full we head back to my father-in-laws to unload
the pans now full of that sweet sap, Hank my husband is starting the fire in the stove under the pans. Here are three generations of maple syrup makers, Grandpa, son, and grandson, and now they are anticipating the sweet maple flavor to start flowing through the air with the steamy boil to come!
Then the sweet maple steam bellows through the sap shed and out through the cupola up in the sky, I'm sure the steam spells out the Somero's are boiling, 
Soon the sap shed will fill up with friends, neighbors and family near and far, to help or just come for the sweet smell and to reminisce of years past
it is always nice when other maple syrup makers come to visit we share our thoughts and ideas and just enjoy the season
all ages are interested, I home school and utilize this sugar making. I have made up a school curriculum to use, teaching the history, the science, and the math that it takes to make tasty maple syrup! 
we have syrup! that liquid gold bounty we have been waiting for is here, now we need to grade it. 
canning and labeled is next
When you pull in at my father-in -laws, the sap shed is on the left just past the main house on the right, you might find it hard to just pass the inviting smells coming from my mother-in-laws kitchen, hot coffee and fresh bakery just out of her oven made by my husbands sweet mother. You will find her door is always open to all visitors. But if you smell her Cinnamon Buns get in there quick or the grandchildren will have them gone lickity split!
and washing all the buckets and spouts
anticipating the maple syrup to last us all year!
this allows only minimal pulp and grape juice to be strained though, leaving behind the seeds and skin , to be discarded if making jelly, to make jam add skins 
