SAINT-CHRYSOTOME, Qué. -- The wedge of land between Montreal and the North Country is Québec's Montérégie region, one of the largest maple-producing regions in the province, which produces most of the world's maple sugar.

Along the narrow, twisting and uneven roads through the farm country of the Upper St. Lawrence River Valley lie many cabanes à sucre -- literally sugar shacks -- that offer home-cooked meals in a unique tradition that's still relatively obscure to many Americans.

For those who enjoy drizzling syrup over their bacon, ham and sausage at breakfast, these sugar shacks are a little bit of heaven. Québecers travel far and wide to enjoy a traditional sugar-shack meal that inevitably involves meats, vegetables and the maple products produced either on that very farm or from around the immediate region.

One popular eatery and syrup producer is L'Hermine in the township of Havelock, less than 40 miles northwest of Plattsburgh. The Ouimet family's restaurant serves about 10,000 people during the two-month maple season.

"This is a family business," said 40-year-old Chantal Ouimet, who runs the operation with her two sisters. On a Sunday afternoon, the dining room is a bustle as cooks and servers rush about with steaming platters of ham, omelettes cooked in syrup, baked beans and, of course, pancakes and maple-syrup pie for dessert. This frenetic pace will continue until the end of April, when the restaurant shuts down for the season.

Fewer than 5 percent of the restaurant's patrons come from the United States, Ouimet said, but those who do seem to appreciate the hearty food.

Outside, a llama and goat stand in a small enclosed paddock as children swarm about in the cold sunshine. A wagon is hitched to two horses ready to take another gaggle of visitors for a brief ride through the maple forest.

About a mile up the road is the 75-acre sugar shack owned and run by Roger Ouimet, a distant cousin. It's an industry that's weather dependent, and this year has been a short season for sap, said Yvon Faille, who is in charge of syrup production. Still, the operation averages about 3,000 gallons a year.

Like many farms in the region, the acres here also graze dairy cattle, and there are apple orchards on a nearby ridge.

On a recent weekend, the horse and sleigh were hitched up, ready to take visitors into the woods to see the taps that are connected by a maze of blue tubing that zigzags across the property. Nestled in the woods is a century-old cabane á sucre, long abandoned, in which Roger Ouimet, now in his 70s, once labored with his father.

"It's been a tradition here for years and years," Faille said.

As most sugar shacks are family owned and operated, each one has its own quirks and idiosyncrasies. As part of the price of the meal -- generally not more than $20 Canadian per person -- a short ride on a sleigh pulled by draft horses is often included.

Despite the individual eccentricities of each sugar shack, most have at least this in common: Seating is at long wooden tables. The meal is served in courses, usually beginning with ham and split pea soup. Those white squares in the soup probably aren't potatoes -- more likely they're morsels of pork fat. Next come the beans, flavored with cured ham and maple sugar. Bacon, smoked ham and omelettes follow perhaps a vegetables or two.

Don't neglect the condiments on the table. There are usually homemade sweet pickles, pickled beets and onions in mason jars as well as traditional ketchup that looks -- but doesn't taste like -- Mexican salsa.

After you've stuffed yourself with the main course, it's time for the first round of dessert. Maple-syrup pie, silver-dollar pancakes -- with yet more syrup -- follow.