nature – HodgePodge Maple

2026 Maple Weekend!

Hey everyone! The big weekend is finally here; it’s time to celebrate Maple Weekend across four New England states—New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut—on March 21 & 22, 2026. Each state has its own maple associations sharing lists and links (links below), but I get a lot of questions about my favorite spots. While I can’t share all my top regional picks, I’ll tell you about some of my favorite local farms and activities around Rochester, NH.

I like to begin my Maple Saturday with a pancake breakfast at the Barrington Fire Department. It runs from 7 am to 11 am. Good food for a good cause! Watching firefighters cook up a storm, enjoying syrup from Spring Harvest just across the street, and feeling the community vibe makes it a perfect start. Many local fire departments come out together to support each other, which adds to the fun.

After breakfast, I head straight across the street to Spring Harvest Maple Farm to visit Josh. I’ve been going there since at least 2011, and I try to make it my first stop when I am visiting NH sugar farms on Maple Weekend. They’re open from 8 am to 4 pm this Saturday and 9 am to 3 pm on Sunday. It feels like they’re always trying to have something new—whether it’s a fresh sweet treat or a classic maple candy. Their plain maple candies are my go-to; they set the standard for all others. There are other farm’s products that are smoother and easier on the mouth, but few that reach the taste I have come to love. I usually also pick up some maple popcorn and baked goods while I’m there.

Another favorite is Sugarmomma’s Maple Farm in Northwood. I first visited her many years ago, and she shared her story about being a mom, raising her kids, and starting her maple journey with supplies from the local hardware store. I really need to catch up with her during the off-season to hear more of her story. Deb works hard with her maple operation, and although she won’t be open in Northwood on Saturday during Maple Weekend because she’ll be at a Farmer’s Market elsewhere, she will be open Sunday, 10am – 2pm. I love that I can also purchase her products from her Sugar House at the Granite State Fair.

Sugarmomma’s Maple at the Granite State Fair, Rochester NH

Next on my list is Barbin’s Tap’n Shack in Barrington. This is a relative newcomer and I haven’t visited often, but I get good vibes every time I do. Their products are solid, and I’m planning to pick up some of their maple extract next time—I think it could come in handy. Their maple grove is right in front of the sugarhouse, a detail I notice and appreciate. Many sugarmakers have to work much harder to transport sap from elsewhere.

Barbin’s Tap’n Shack, Barrington NH 2023

Another newer spot I like is Colonial Mountain Maple in Milton. Lee, the owner, named his farm after the area’s early homesteads – I love looking at historical artifacts, especially those in situ, and imagine how our predecessors might have handled things. His sugar shack burned down a couple of years ago, but he rebuilt it better than ever. I’ve enjoyed chatting with him about maple and land stewardship, and he’s involved in local town events, which I think is pretty cool.

Colonial Mountain Maple, Milton NH 2021 Old Sugarhouse

Then there’s Matras Maple, started back in 2002 by two brothers with the help of their dad. They initially boiled sap with a homemade setup, but by 2010, they had a beautiful sugarhouse. The farm stand is open year-round, and I’ve stopped by a few times to buy ice cream. Their dad, Gene, is also a talented pen and ink artist—I have a couple of his pieces, and I’ve seen his work in sugarhouses all over the northeast, especially in Vermont.

Another interesting place is Monkey Bear Farm in Milton, tucked into the side of the 125 bridge. It’s named after a quirky log statue Eric Ohlenbusch created—an attempt at a bear with a chainsaw, which turned out pretty odd but memorable. Monkey Bear started as a farm stand and continues to offer products year-round, including farm-fresh eggs and starter plants in spring. They once had maple marshmallows, which I’ve never seen anywhere else—definitely a treat worth trying.

I’ve put together a list of these farms along with some other ones I’ve visited and some others are on the NH Maple Weekend page that I haven’t checked out yet. Have fun exploring and tasting all the sweet goodness this weekend!

Maple Farm	Hours for Maple Weekend	Address
Spring Harvest Maple Farm	8 am – 3 pm	761 Frankin Pierce Highway Barrington NH
Sugarmomma’s Maple Farm	10 am – 2 pm Sunday only	213 Ridge Rd, Northwood, NH
Barbin’s Tap’n Shack	9:30 am – 4 pm	53 Leeanna Drive Barrington NH
Colonial Mountain Maple	11 am -5 pm	382 Teneriffe Road, Milton NH
Matras Maple	10 am – 4 pm	821 Catamount Road, Pittsfield, NH
Monkey Bear Farm	11:30 am – 3 pm	21 Brown Road Milton, NH
MapleSaint	9 am – 4 pm	28 Lang Road, Deerfield, NH
Dill Family Farm	9 am – 4 pm	45 Griffin Road, Deerfield, NH
Madbury Maples	??	29 Nute Road, Madbury, NH
San-Wal Farm	10 am – 3 pm	23 Lee Hook Road, Lee, NH
Oak and Briar Farm	9:30 am – 3 pm	1271 Ten Rod Rd Farmington NH
Echo Ridge Sugar House	Sat 8-4, Sun 9-3	22 Cartland Rd, Lee, NH
Stonewall Sugar Shack	10 am – 3 pm	1109 Franklin Pierce Hwy, Barrington, NH
Tuts Farm	9 am – 4 pm	64 Bolan Rd, Milton, NH

New Hampshire Maple Producers Association

Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association

Maine Maple Producers Association

Southern Maine Maple Sugarmakers Association

Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut

What does Kate do when it’s not Maple Season? Check out the HodgePodge Images Blog

Planning Your Sweet Maple Road Trip 3.0, the AI version…

Planning my Sweet Maple Road Trip has been a bit of a ritual for me for 17 years now. I know opinions about Artificial Intelligence are all over the place—some folks see it as a helpful tool, others worry about its implications. I see AI as just another tool, like a car: powerful, useful, but also something that can be misused. This year, AI has totally changed how I organize my maple adventures!

I admit, I tend to overthink my plans, but without that extra effort, I’d miss out on some of the amazing Sugar Houses I’ve visited over the years. I keep a running list of sugarhouses in each state that are part of local associations, adding new ones as I discover them. It’s a bit of a passion project, really.

This year, I found a perfect way to use AI. I gave it what I felt like was a simple prompt: “From this web page, create a spreadsheet of farms with name in the first column, address in the second, web address in the third, and any other details in the fourth. Create a downloadable Excel spreadsheet of this information.” I used it for Mass Maple, which is happening on March 7 and 8, and I was pretty happy with the results. It saved me a lot of time and effort.

(Yes, I know this is CT. I had already deleted MA)

Looking ahead, I want to visit Rhode Island, but I noticed there’s no official state association listing members. So, I did some digging and came up with about eight potential places, including the Coggeshall Farm Museum. After I wrote this, I ran another query: “Give me a list of Rhode Island Maple places that would be open on March 7.” It returned one place I hadn’t already found, but unfortunately, their Facebook post said they wouldn’t be open due to the weather.

I also plan to check out a couple of sugar houses in Connecticut, ideally when I’m already down in Rhode Island. The Connecticut Maple weekend isn’t until March 21 and 22, and I worry their season might be over by then. To prepare, I’ll use my AI prompt again to add Connecticut sugar houses to my list and then start mapping out my route.

Google My Maps has become my go-to for planning. It is not listed in the available Google Apps but comes right up when I (wait for it…) Google It. I’ve created several maps over the years, so they pop right up. I upload my Connecticut Maple spreadsheet to create a map, and can add different layers when I add any other state, color-coded for easy reference. Tomorrow, I plan to be at Coggeshall Farm in Bristol, RI at 10 am when they open. Since there’s an entrance fee, I’ll stay as long as I want, then see what other farms I can visit on the way home. I look at the map to identify farms along my route, mark them on my spreadsheet, and then check if they’ll be open on Saturday, March 7. In previous years, I’d print out a list or look at it on my phone, but this year, I’ll bring my laptop for quick access.

On Sunday afternoon, I’ll see what I can squeeze in around Massachusetts.

This year, the Maple Weekends in Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire are all scheduled for March 21 and 22. I haven’t quite figured out my plan of attack yet—there’s a lot to consider, and I’ll need to prioritize. Either way, I’m excited to hit the road and hope to see some of you along the way. For me, Maple all about enjoying the journey and discovering new sugarhouses, one sweet adventure at a time.

Meadow View Sugar House in a snow storm 2019

Disclaimer: I’ve tried this a number of times since and I couldn’t get it to work 😦

What does Kate do when it’s not Maple Season? Check out the HodgePodge Images Blog

Maine Maple Saturday, March 22, 2025

One thing I love about Maple is that it makes that long New England mud season between winter and spring much shorter. I also love Maine Maple weekend because it is also the first outing of the Maine Entomological Association (the Bug Folks) combining the best of both worlds. So I like to plan my Maine Maple Weekend to spend at least some time with MES at the Donahue residence in Whitefield.

The first visit for the day was Jillson’s Farm in Sabattus.

They were not yet boiling for the day but the sugarmaker was still enthusiastic about telling people how things work.

Someone thinks they have pretty good product!

They certainly had quite the variety!

Pep’s was not far.

I get rather frustrated when the line to purchase product goes out the door with no other way to see the actual process.

So I went to the next on my list, Maple Rush Sugar House. This has quite a picturesque building but it was hard to get a good picture as there was so much other stuff too close.

The red line on the hydrometer is above the syrup – over sweet! Easily adjusted.

The main purpose for choosing Maine on Saturday was because the Maine Entomological Association was also having their Syrup Making/Bucket Checking bug day, the first of our monthly outings for 2025.

A number of neighbors get together to collect sap and keep the furnace stoked.

There are a number of old farm maples along the back of the yard.

Charlene is a great teacher with learners of all skill levels.

On the way home I started with Poulin’s Maple in Windsor.

Many of the sugarhouses had boardwalks that would have been very helpful but there was very little mud.

Watching the syrup finally flow.

And my last farm for the day, Marcoux’s Maine Maple in Wiscasset.

Very picturesque sugarhouse.

And a sweet large evaporator with a steamaway.

NH Maple Weekend, March 15 & 16, 2025

I love when I can begin a NH Maple Weekend with pancakes at the Barrington Fire Department. My camera was being wonky so I don’t have any inside photos.

And then, across from the Fire Department is my friend Josh and Spring Harvest Maple. I think he needs a new sign…

Josh offers a discount to his customers who bring back his glass bottles to be refilled. This pic shows lots of signs of business, although I don’t see any names on these bottles so maybe these are all new..

One of my favorite photos – Every time most sugarmakers start a boil they fill a small jar demonstrating the quality of the syrup at that point in time. There may be a different number of jars each year as weather dictates how long the season is. This represents 132 boils.

When I left Barrington I headed over to the Monadnock Region. I am very frustrated with the NH Maple Producers organization. This weekend I had 20 farms on my list of places that I hoped to visit, all that had the 2025 Maple Weekend logo in the upper right corner of their directory listing. Of this, I found 8 farms open for visitors. I may have driven 200 miles out of my way this weekend 😦

First stop on my list, Fieldstone Farm in Rindge. This is a farm farm with cows and chickens in addition to maple. It also probably has a great reputation as the line for checkout went through the evaporator room into the kitchen.

Just before I went to Fieldstone I passed Maple Row Sugaring. I went back there as my next location even though they were not on my list 😉 This sugarhouse is rather small but their product was quite tasty. It amazes me that these places can be so close to each other but still are able to sell out of syrup with only word-of-mouth.

Not many runs yet this year but very consistent

Next up, Mighty Maple. Not large by any means but good things come in small packages.

I loved the large stained glass maple leaf in the window – and the shadow it left on the floor 🙂

Being artistic with a short depth-of-field

Fun logo!

This classic sugarhouse may make it into some of my Alternative Photography. (If you’re interested in such stuff, check out some of my earlier posts on this blog)

As I was trying to leave the U-shaped drive, I had to stop as someone was purchasing at the associated roadside stand. As he was leaving he apologized and said, “I love that he takes Venmo”.

Because I couldn’t count on all the saphouses on my list being open, if I passed a farm I knew was open, I stopped. I saw the sign along 12A as I was heading north and I stopped and was glad I did. This is a fun family sugarhouse with food and picnic tables inside and great products for sale. I really wanted to purchase maple fudge but I controlled myself (this time).

I hadn’t remembered that I had already been to Hillside Sugar Bush Farm. I’m glad I stopped. Last time every one was stressing a little bit because it was not only Maple weekend but also town meeting day. It was town meeting day again but I guess this year it was earlier and it was fun to come and find the whole family there.

I love their shirts and everyone had one.

I believe this is Jim Lukash. He and I had a fun discussion about how maple challenges one to invent and make do.

I passed by a sign for Beaver Pond Sugarhouse. I stopped but this wasn’t the actual sugarhouse which is located “up on the mountain”. It was a fun farm stand with lots of maple products for sale. I purchased another Maple Soda bottle and contents for my collection.

And last, but not least, time was running short so I didn’t get to all of the places on my map. I cut over to South Sutton and my friends at Meetinghouse Hill Farm sugarhouse. I couldn’t resist this little one in his Carhartts.

This sugarhouse house is in my “create art from this” list.

Cody Anderson is a mild mannered Kearsarge Regional High School Science teacher by day and…

And Dad is Sr Director of Education for the Forest Society and co-host of “Something Wild” on NHPR.
I’m not usually a fan of tattoos but Dave has the best… if someone forced me, I’d choose tree leaves as well.

Final shot as I was leaving.

And I was blessed by a sweet sunset on the way home.

Two Taps Sap House was the 5th on my list for Sunday and the first one welcoming visitors.

Not quite the final product but the first step that is actually syrup.

When Grandpa used to sugar, he used wooden pipes for collection. This is one of them.

I couldn’t get a good angle to take a good picture of the end of the pipe so I trusted my camera to do it for me and didn’t realize it failed me. This is the end that was pared down to fit into the next pipe.

And I was blessed with a parting gift.

I believe this was one of the places on my list that was not welcoming guests.

But then I found Morrill’s Sugar Shack in Franklin and it made up for some of the earlier deficits.

I’m bummed I didn’t get names. Father and son are working this together – I love that. The pusher that the son is using here is from an old coal stove. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use this tool before. Not only is it great to move around wood and ashes in the fire box but he can easily grab and open both doors at the same time.

This is dad inside the wood shed. He said I had to go outside and see it from there…

And it was well worth the short walk. It is only the firewood that is holding the window and the door. How fun!

And the heart is intentional 💕

After this I headed over to Tilton to Just Maple. The first time I came over here I was mostly curious because I had seen their product for sale at other places. The sugarhouse is not the most picturesque but they do things well here.

If I followed directions, I would have been led through the tasting room into the gift shop. I would have been told that the sugarbush tours start by the big old maple tree. But I didn’t really want a sugarbush tour today and I walked through the gift shop to the tasting room backwards. I did buy a long-sleeve t-shirt…

Every sugarhouse dog should have a heart on his chest 💕

And another of those sugarhouses that wasn’t open for visitors…

And it was raining at this point.

But by the time I reached Leighton Farms East & West in Sanbornton it had stopped. The sugarhouse was in one location but the East & West referred to the original farm on one side of the road and the newer purchase on the other. This sugarhouse was much taller than most others I have visited. I apologize, I really need to start taking notes again. I don’t remember all the cool stuff I heard about. Leighton Farms is apparently well-known for it’s Bourbon infused syrup.

And I was again given a parting gift…

And last, but not least, in NH this day I visited Smith Farm in Gilford. I had forgotten that I was here before, and it wasn’t until I walked around the building that I recognized the place. The last time I was here I think there was a zillion other people – this day I had the place to myself. It looks like this house is about 78 years old and is looking pretty good for its age.

Massachusetts Maple Weekend – March 8 & 9, 2025

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.

The Farm’s guard dogs 😉

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.

Martha and Tom

	Kate Wilcox on Bisson’s Sugar House
	Linda Kulig Magoon on Now I need to write…
	Sweet Celebrations!… on So much Maple, so little …
	Kate Wilcox on Vermont Maple Weekend: Lunenbu…