In 2017 I wrote about planning your sweet maple road trip. There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then and some technological changes. This year, for the first time, I used Google My Maps. Rather than planning a route like I did with MapQuest, Google allows me to mark each farm with a pin and be able to choose on the fly which place to go to next. On my desktop there is an icon that will give me step-by-step directions though I don’t see this on my phone. When I click on the pin I get the address which I then type into my GPS. In Vermont and Maine I have gone places that don’t have cell service, places my phone GPS wouldn’t work. I always carry my old Garmin with me so I don’t get stuck somewhere without a map.
Once again, I rely heavily on the State Maple Associations to find locations, and more importantly addresses, to plan out my trip. Most people probably don’t keep a year to year spreadsheet listing all the farms that have belonged to their state association since 2017, and you don’t need to, but you will need names and addresses of your desired goals.
Create spreadsheet with Name and address, including street, town, and state. Add notes – when the place is open or why that one might be special. You can adjust your data display so these notes show up on your map. Because my Excel data file has multiple pages, I save only the current list on a new Excel spreadsheet in my “Downloads” file because, if all you’re doing with it is creating the map, it can be deleted when you are finished. You can also keep the folder open where you have saved it and drag and drop from there.
Open Google My Maps. The link that got me here was http://www.google.com/maps/d/ Click the hamburger (the 3 parallel lines in the upper left corner), choose “Create a new map”, and click “create” in the box that pops up. If you click on “untitled layer” you can rename your layer. Click on “import” and find your spreadsheet; either browse or drag and drop. Google will then allow you to choose the columns that contain your address information. When you then choose “Continue”, you will be able to choose the “name” column it will use to label your pins. Click “finish”.
When you see your map, you will see the pins marking the addresses you created. If you click on the pin, you can adjust what you can see on the label. I choose to see the name and hours they are open in addition to the address. I will often direct my tours so I end up far from home so that this drive can take place after a day full of adventures when the farms are closed.
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.
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.
HodgePodge Maple 
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