On April 3rd 2021 I visited Bisson’s Sugar House in Berlin, NH. They were celebrating their 100th anniversary and it was obvious from the visitors that they had great respect in the community. Here’s Muriel in the doorway with a local EMT purching his syrup. They generally weren’t inviting people in but it was 4 pm and they were closing up their table outside. Lucien and Muriel didn’t want me photographing the evaporator as it was not set up and a little messy. I don’t remember if they asked me not to photograph Lucien or just that I don’t generally ask people to allow me to do that. I need to – little did I know.
I always love to look at things that make a particular sugarhouse unique. This sugar house, as most, was space limited, so they had fold down stairs to access the tanks in the upper level.
Rather than buy a new product to finish their syrup, they modified a system they had retired from service.
I love the historical aspect of maple, especially the family connections. Many of the farms I visit are recent and hopefully they include other people in their adventure. Bisson’s included photos and maple implements in their “museum”.
Bisson’s was famous for their maple taffy, aka La Tire. Many years ago, while one of the farmers tended the evaporator, he whittled “La Pallette”, a wooden spoon that could be used to eat the taffy out of your tin cup. The spoons hadn’t been used in many years but there was still a box of them in the sugar house. As part of their anniversary celebration, they gave out La Pallette with the purchase of La Tire. Too bad they didn’t give out tin cups as well!
They had also written a book chronicling the 100 years of “the Sugar House on the Hill”. I purchased this, along with some candy.
Today, April 1, 2023 is a warm but particulary rainy day. Vermont is still celebrating with a second Maple Weekend but I was not up for another long drive in that direction. I thought that I might head to Northern New Hampshire for another visit to Bisson’s. You can imagine my disappointment when I opened their website to find this:
Too many Sugarmakers are reaching the age that they just cannot do it anymore, and few relatives (especially after watching their parents, uncles or aunts working so hard) want to take on the great responsibility of the farm. Some of the maple groves are being absorbed by other farmers, but some are just reverting back to forests or, horror of horrors, being converted to developments. I am hoping that, in my travels, I may have made connections between Farmers ready to retire and Young’ens who might take over. May it be so! I also see a number of new farms who think “that looks fun” and try it for a couple of years, realize how hard it is, and fade into history themselves. Hopefully they can sell their used evaporator and other equipment on MapleTrader.com or some similar site for the next person that wants to try. Hopefully someone who started on barrels or a turkey cooker and is ready to upgrade finds it and brings it to life again. It take all kinds, which is why my name is HodgePodge!
Kate
HodgePodge Maple 
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