Saturday, March 8, the HodgePodge Adventure Team (the dogs and I) headed down to Massachusetts on a Maple tour planned from the Massachusetts Maple Producers website. First stop, Williams Farm Sugarhouse in Deerfield, MA. This is a nice Sugarhouse with a restaurant and a good Family Vibe in the Connecticut River floodplain.
Next stop on my list was the Graves Glen Farm Sugarhouse in Shelburne. There was probably a farmstand up the road with an open sign but I was hoping to catch the sugarhouse open and was disappointed when it wasn’t.
I believe this is the Cranston’s Tree Farm sugarhouse in Ashfield. Once again, I drove by what might have been a farmstand but was looking for open sugarhouses.
The North Hadley Sugar Shack is a larger place with sugarhouse, restaurant, and store. It has been in business a little shy of 30 years and has a family feel.
Harris Mountain Sugar Shack in Granby was the next stop. I think he gave me a taste of really good syrup but I really need to take notes again… He did have craft and food items for sale from neighbors including some sweet pottery and a food truck. He collected his sap in bags – I have only seen this a two other farms, one at the very beginning of my maple adventure in 2009 that was swapped out for buckets the next year, and another in Lebanon, Maine that I’ve never seen open for visitors.
Next up was Deer Meadow Farm in Warren. I did have to back down the neighbor’s driveway when I realized that the directional sign wasn’t so clear. This sugarhouse was up on the side of a hill with a magnificent outlook!
This is a small family farm with a sweet little sugarhouse. Because they are on the side of a mountain they have wonderful natural flow for the tubing system but, because they are not at the bottom, have to truck the sap up the hill. The syrup here was also outstanding.
Sunday morning I headed out by myself to return to Massachusetts for more sugarhouse visits.
First on the list was Kimstead Farm in Pepperell. The is a beautiful new saphouse on what looks like a historic farm. I love sugar farmers who are excited to teach visitors.
Boggastowe Farm, also in Pepperell, is another historic farm with a new sugarhouse. I had a couple of issues with showing up at times that farms said they were not open or had closed already. I think part of this was my looking at old posts but I wonder if some of it was people who had not yet changed their clocks…
The tree on the left above and right below is a Norway Maple. Farmer Kevin Ritchie assured me that he finds no odd tastes in his syrup and that this tree, and the couple of others that are around, give sap with a pretty high sugar concentration.
The Norway Maple spile
This is his original evaporator, now refurbished as a table. There is currently a Vermont Evaporator Company that has been known for barrel evaporators that is now getting into larger units, but it is not associated with this older company.
I didn’t feel that an RV in the driveway was very welcoming so I didn’t look hard to see if this farm might be open.
Rocky Brook Farm in Sterling is a historic old farm recently purchased. I would have loved to stand around an hear the stories – I think I heard something about the previous owner, an older lady, who used to carry the full buckets around. Kristin uses food safe buckets from Tractor Supply for collection.
Sweet little sugar shack just big enough.
I wondered if Kristen Hemenway is a supermodel. I guess she really is a fitness trainer.
This tree looks like it could tell stories.
And last but not least, we visited Bucket List Maple in West Brookfield. As you can imagine, Tom and Martha are retired and have always wanted to do this.
They said that they had this sign made for farmers’ markets
I’m sorry, I’m neglecting the important things, I don’t remember what the cat’s name is. I thought she was just about the same grays and browns of the evaporator. She seemed to be leaning on the evaporator but I didn’t smell any burning fur.
HodgePodge Maple 