On April 2nd, 2016 I struck gold. I found out about the L
unenburg Maple Festival on the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association website. I think the drive was about 2 1/2 hours to get there but it brought me through beautiful country, some of which I had never seen before. I entered Vermont through the Mt Orne covered bridge, which I thought was appropriate. It was not far from here to the Lunenburg Pri
mary School where the base of the festival was held.
As you enter the school there are displays, possibly created by school students. The ones I saw talked about types of trees, family history with pictures, and equipment. There were books and postcards from the 
historical society, “culinary delights” (pancake breakfast, pie contest, and to-die-for maple cookies), and “creative expressions of maple” (photo and quilt square contest). The quilt square
s were then made into a quilt that will be raffled this year.
The Vermont Maple Sugar Makers had a food trailer in the parking lot where you could try samples or buy treats.
My favorite part was the map that they give you as you walk in the door. On it were Maple Farms that were open for tours. The same map has been used for many years and some of the places were not currently open, but I was able to visit 6 different houses within the town boundaries.
My first stop was Bernard LaBounty’s. This was hands-down the most picturesque house of the day. Mr LaBounty said, “I’ve been sugarin’ all my life – I’ve been here since 2000. He says he does it the “easy way – with tubing”. Tubing might be easier than buckets but is still a lot of work.
I then headed up the road a piece to Gram-Vue Sugar House. The 
Colby’s have a long history of sugaring but Wes was the second son so he had to build his own sugar house. That was okay with him since his dad had switched to oil-fired and he never liked it. When he built his ow
n new house in 1979 he put in the wood-fired unit he wanted. His maple grove is totally Rock (Sugar) Maple and his house can watch the sun rise or set. He has won many awards for his fancy (light colored) syrup but has had trouble selling it recently as people have been looking for the more robust flavor of darker syrup.
Sharon and Chet Stockwell of Maple Memories have been sugaring here 20 years, 10 with the current set up. Sharon’s dad was a Maple Farmer – 
Chet grew up as a “city kid” in town. They met in High School. They originally had an evaporator set up in the driveway and Chet came home one night to find a log frame with a tarp over it. He later reused the frame as the base for his new sugar shack. Their son went away to college and came back recommending that they use a blower in the wood box. Chet admitted “if the older folks listen to the younger folks, sometimes they have some pretty good ideas!”
Larry Amadon started doing maple at East View Farm 50/50 with his 15-year-old son in 2000. When his son 
“found girls” he was no longer interested in the work so his father bought him out. He is a contractor who does “just
syrup” with his maple as opposed to those who do candy and creams. He does enjoy having sugar on snow for his Maple Weekend guests but had no snow to serve on this year so he rented a snow-cone machine. Each year he records his boils on shingles that he hangs on the wall at the end of the season.
Carroll Macie of Macies’ Maple told his wife Neva that he wanted 
to get into maple when he retired. Neva’s retirement gift to him in 2010 was an evaporator. He watches what 
other people do but doesn’t jump on the bandwagon immediately. He built his own sap pre-heater out of pvc pipe but figures next year it might be worth having a copper one. He also didn’t think he needed a filter press but now he’s glad he bought one. He told me that Vermont checks the sugar level of the syrup by weight. Syrup should weigh 11 lbs per gallon as opposed to the 8 pounds of pure water. Macies’ syrup had a unique buttery flavor that I’d not tasted elsewhere.
When I am planning these maple tours I go to the state Maple Producers’ website and list all the potentials. There were only 6 farms open in Lunenburg so I still had some time for more in Vermont (though I forgot how big the state really is).
The next farm I wanted to visit had a few things going for it. It was big, well-known in maple, and was open later. I headed for Cabot to visit Goodrich Maple Farm. Glen Goodrich started as an Industrial Arts teacher who also did maple and has morphed into one of the industry’s greatest inventors. He created one of the first sap pre-heaters and is 
regularly a guest speaker at maple meetings. The family has been sugaring since at least 1840 but he’s also Abenaki on his mother’s side so probably much longer. He built his first sugarhouse in 1979 and rebuilt it yearly until they purchased this property in 1990. He has 
the “latest and greatest”, most efficient system he can figure out. He has designed equipment for a couple of manufacturers and built his latest building with a seminar room. His daughter Jean works with him regularly and I happened to catch a day when his father was also visiting. His first daughter Sarah moved to Michigan where she started Thunder Bay Maple.
The only farm that I knew was still open at this time was Silloway Maple in Randolph Center. They are now in their 3rd sugarhouse (2014) which looked like a pretty plain pole building 
until I saw the solar panels on top and the beautiful woodwork inside. Their 70 solar panels provide enough electricity for their whole maple production and
half of the need for their dairy farm. The sugarhouse has a loft with a large screen that they use for educational programs. Paul is currently the manager of the business but his folks did the work before him and his mom Bette is still the “marketing director”. She enjoys writing and has a blog. She has written magazine articles and markets wholesale and at the local farmer’s market. This is the first farm where I have seen a designated drum storeroom with an overhead 
lift system. When they syrup is drummed, they also create a small sample bottle so they don’t have to break the seal to test the flavor. The drums are well cataloged with serial numbers. Paul was planning on taking some drums later in the week to the Big E for potential sale at the Fair in the fall.
The 12th annual Lunenburg Maple Festival will be held March 25. 2017 from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the Lunenburg Primary School, 49 Bobbin Mill Rd, Lunenburg, VT. If any of my friends are interested in going, please let me know as I’d love to purchase the history book and more of those wonderful cookies 
attention to the dates each farm is open. Some are only open the official NH Maple Weekend of March 24 & 25, some are open all or some combination of the four weeks.
Then there are a couple of Maple Festivals that I am aware of in 2018:
not the names of the farms, so I have to keep my Excel Spreadsheet handy. I compare it to thethe map and the list and may pull stops off of my map if there are too many or they are too far away. Eventually I’ve worked it down to a “do-able” list and I’ve taken farms off of the spreadsheet to match. I put the “pin numbers” from Mapquest on the spreadsheet and reorder the list keeping in mind if a farm has listed that it will open late or close early.
HodgePodge Maple 
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