Normally under an hour drive, we took our time in order to visit a dairy producer and abbey.
The dairy producer was called La Pinte located in Ayer’s Cliff. They made plain milk, chocolate milk, cream, and yogurts. We tasted the chocolate milks and ended up with the one with the most fat…….of course. Then we went onto their yogurts, once again liking the full fat version. We ended up purchasing a strawberry, blueberry, and pumpkin/apple (which is currently our favourite). The Jersey milk has more butter fat and contains more protein, which is probably why it tastes so good. Here are some great pics of the place.
Our next stop was the Abbey of Saint-Benoit-Du-Lac. Founded in 1912 by a monk who was sent from France to set up a monastery. Today they keep the grounds and building operational by growing, producing, and selling their products. They sell apples, jams, salad dressings, cheeses made on site, cider (again made on site), as well as pasta sauces. The Abbey is open daily except between 11:00-12:00 when they have their daily mass.
We had to be quiet while inside, despite Lori’s concern that we shouldn’t have parked in the main car parking lot. Barb loved the challenge of guiding Lori into the spot and felt we should celebrate an incredible parallel parking job. As our tour ended we were walking back to the RV and a man came up to us in the parking lot and exclaimed ”are you the owners of that RV?” Proudly we said “yes’. he then went on to tell us the head priest sent him out to find us and tell us to move the RV as it wasn’t allowed to park there and it should have been in the lower parking lot for large vehicles. We apologized profusely and then went in to the RV and laughed our heads off for getting in trouble at a very prestigious abbey.
