Tag: Vermont

So much Maple, so little time!

It’s here! Time for Maple Adventures!

Want to plan your own?

New Hampshire Maple Producers Association celebrates Maple Month for four weekends beginning March 10, 2018. You can find their list and maps here. Pay Kate Wilcox Spring Harvest Maple 2016-1attention 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.

Massachusetts Maple Producers Association celebrates their Maple Weekend on March 17 & 18. Find their directory of participating sugar houses here.

Maine Maple Producers Association and Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association will both celebrate on March 24 & 25 with New Hampshire’s focus weekend. Maine’s information is here, while Vermont’s is here (click on the links).

A couple of organizations have maple teaching programs:

Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center in Laconia, NH is celebrating Maple Sugar Madness every Saturday in March.

Remick Country Doctor Museum and Farm in Tamworth Village, NH will celebrate Maple Sugaring Day Open House on Saturday, March 21 from 11 am – 3 pm. I have enjoyed this even on a couple of occasions.

The 100 Acre Wood Sugar Shack, part of the Believe in Books Literacy Foundation in Intervale, NH, has it’s Maple Storybook Trail open anytime (self-guided), but says that an inside peek at the Sugar Shack can only be done when they are open.

Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA is celebrating Maple Days each weekend in March.

The NH Maple Experience is located at The Rocks in Bethlehem, NH, the North Country Conservation & Education Center for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. The dates for this event in 2018 are March 17, 24, 25, 31, April 1 and 7.

Kate Wilcox Lunenburg 2016-1Then there are a couple of Maple Festivals that I am aware of in 2018:

East Canterbury Maple Festival, Canterbury, NH, March 24 & 25

Kearsarge Maple Festival, Warner & Webster, NH, March 24 & 25

A personal favorite is the Lunenburg (VT) Maple Festival on Saturday, March 24 from 8 am – 4 pm

Skowhegan, ME will have their Maple Festival as part of Maine Maple Weekend on March 23 – 25, 2018

The Annual Official Vermont Maple Festival is April 27 – April 29 is primarily in St. Albans, VT

The St. Johnsbury World Maple Festival is April 28.Kate Wilcox Lunenburg 2016-2

None of my plans are set in stone – so much Maple, so little time!

Planning your Sweet Maple Road Trip!

Maple Season is short and the time of open sugarhouses is even shorter, sRidgeland Farm 03-19-16P Maple -11o I’ve come up with a means of hitting as many as I can as quickly as I can. Having a GPS helps but is not necessary if your goal farms are on main roads.

Farmers who belong to the state associations (see link here) let the association know when they will be open and often provide a “news release” listing specialty items or unusual activities they NHMPA Logomay have available. I decide on an area I want to conquer on a particular day and create an excel spreadsheet transferring the data from the website. I then use MapQuest’s Route Planner option to create a tour that includes all the sites. This site includes an option to upload a spreadsheet.

The Map this creates for me may or may not be reasonable. It gives a time estimate, but of course that does not include any time for the stop itself. And the Map is only labeled with the addresses, 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.

I save both the original long list and the final draft as pdfs and open them on my tablet. The day of my adventure I use the short list to feed my GPS and add in stops from the long list if I find I have recommendations from farmers or extra time. 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.

(Cover photo: Ridgeland Farm, Loudon, NH)

Sugarhouses I’ve entered so far

1

 Harris Farm Dayton, ME 4/2/09

2

 Giles Family Farm Alfred, ME 3/28/10

3

 Thurston and Peters Newfield, ME 3/26/11

4

 Maple Hill Sugarhouse Newfield, ME 3/26/11

5

 Hilltop Boilers Newfield, ME 3/24/12

6

 Remick Farm Museum Tamworth, NH 3/24/14

7

 Meadowview Sugarhouse Union, NH 3/23/13

8

 Spring Harvest Maple Farm Barrington, NH 3/20/11

9

 Meaders Heritage Farm Rochester, NH 3/23/13

10

 Sanborn Hope Farm Rochester 3/23/14

11

 Price Farm Gilmanton, NH 3/29/14

12

 Fillion Maple Farm Gilmanton, NH 3/29/14

13

 Still Seeking Farm Gilmanton, NH 3/29/14

14

 Pearl & Sons Farm Loudon, NH 3/29/14

15

 Maple Ridge Sugar House Loudon, NH 3/29/14

16

 Bascom Family Farm Alstead, NH 3/21/15

17

 Clarks’ Sugar House Langdon, NH 3/21/15

18

 Belgian Meadows Farm Lebanon, ME 3/22/15

19

 Chase Farms Wells, ME 3/22/15

20

 Young Maple Ridge N Sandwich, NH 3/28/15

21

 Booty Family Farm Center Sandwich, NH 3/28/15

22

 SP’s Sugar Shack Center Ossipee, NH 3/28/15

23

 Ten Rod Farm Rochester, NH 3/29/15

24

 Good Olde Boys Maple Syrup Strafford, NH 3/29/15

25

 The Root Sellar Nottingham, NH 3/12/16

26

 Folsom’s Sugar House Chester, NH 3/12/16

27

 Rising Sweetness Sugar Shack New Durham, NH 3/19/16

28

 Shepherd’s Hut Market Gilford, NH 3/19/16

29

 Windswept Maples Farm Loudon, NH 3/19/16

30

 Ridgeland Farm Loudon, NH 3/19/16

31

 Journey’s End Maple Farm Pittsfield, NH 3/19/16

32

 Matras Family Farm Pittsfield, NH 3/19/16

33

 Sap Hound Maple Company Brownfield, ME 3/20/16

34

 Turkey Street Maples Chocorua, NH 3/20/16

35

 Triple C Farm Lyman, ME 3/26/16

36

 Coopers Maple Products Windham, ME 3/26/16

37

 Nash Valley Farm Windham, ME 3/26/16

38

 Merrifield Farm Gorham, ME 3/26/16

39

 Pingree Maple Products Cornish, ME 3/26/16

40

 Rocky M Farm Porter, ME 3/26/16

41

 Willette’s Maple Syrup Porter, ME 3/26/16

42

 Lost Cabin Sugar Bush Limington, ME 3/26/16

43

 Morin’s Maple Syrup Limerick, ME 3/27/16

44

 Maple House Farm Waterboro, ME 3/27/16

45

 Maple Moon Farm Lebanon, ME 3/27/16

46

 LaBounty Sugar House Lunenburg, VT 4/2/16

47

 Gram-Vue Farm Lunenburg, VT 4/2/16

48

 Maple Memories Sugarhouse Lunenburg, VT 4/2/16

49

 East View Farm Lunenburg, VT 4/2/16

50

 Macie Sugarhouse Lunenburg, VT 4/2/16

51

 Goodrich’s Maple Farm Cabot, VT 4/2/16

52

 Silloway Maple Farm Randolph Center, VT 4/2/16

53

 Seabrisket Sugarbush Brookfield, NH 3/18/17

54

 Eldridge Family Sugar House Tamworth, NH 3/18/17

55

 Bridgewater Mountain Maple Plymouth, NH 3/19/17

56

 Huckins Maple Farm Tilton, NH 3/19/17

57

 Mapletree Farm Concord, NH 3/25/17

58

 LedgeTop Sugar House Boscawen, NH 3/25/17

59

 Kimball’s Sugar House Webster, NH 3/25/17

60

 Courser Farm Warner, NH 3/25/17

61

 Sammy’s Sugar Shack Milford, NH 3/25/17

62

 Brookview Sugarhouse Wilton, NH 3/25/17

63

 Connolly’s Sugar House Temple, NH 3/25/17

64

 Ben’s Sugar Shack Temple, NH 3/25/17
Harris Family Farm Dayton, ME 3/26/17

65

 Douston Maple and Honey Arundel, ME 3/26/17

66

 Brookridge Boilers Lyman, ME 3/26/17
Giles Family’s New Sugarhouse Alfred, ME 3/26/17

67

 Benton’s Sugar Shack Thornton, NH 4/1/17

68

 Fadden’s Sugar House N Woodstock, NH 4/1/17
Meadowview View Sugarhouse Union, NH 4/2/17

69

 Sugarmomma’s Maple Farm Northwood, NH 4/2/17

70

 Dill Family Farm Deerfield, NH 4/2/17

71

 Forty to One Farmington, NH 3/4/18

72

 Hunt’s Sugar House Hillsboro, NH  3/10/18

73

 Atkins Family Sugarhouse Washington, NH  3/10/18
Bascom Family Farm Alstead, NH 3/10/18
Clarks’ Sugar House Langdon, NH 3/10/18

74

 Woodard’s Sugar House Surry, NH 3/10/18

75

 Crescendo Farm  Surry, NH 3/10/18

76

 Dufresne’s Sugar House Williamsburg, MA 3/17/18

77

 Paul’s Sugarhouse Williamsburg, MA 3/17/18

78

 Hanging Mountain Farm Westhampton, MA 3/17/18

79

 Clapp Sugarhouse  Westhampton, MA 3/17/18

80

 Steve’s Sugar Shack  Westhampton, MA 3/17/18

81

 Zawalick’s Sugarhouse Florence, MA 3/17/18

82

 Brookledge Sugarhouse Whately, MA 3/17/18

83

 Boyden Brothers Maple Conway, MA 3/17/18

84

 Hutchinson’s Family Sugarhouse Canterbury, NH 3/18/18
 85 Baker’s Syrup Warner, NH 3/24/18
86 Bate’s Maple Syrup Warner, NH 3/24/18
87 Beaver Meadowbrook Farm Warner, NH 3/24/18
 88 Turyn’s Tap’n & Sap’n Webster, NH 3/24/18
 89 Rogers Maple Syrup Warner, NH 3/24/18
 90 Kearsarge Gore Farm Warner, NH 3/24/18
 91 Sweet’s Maple/Ben’s Sugar Shack Newbury, NH 3/24/18
 92 Meetinghouse Hill Tree Farm Sutton, NH 3/24/18
 93 Hidden Roots Maple Farm Limerick, ME 3/25/18
 94 Alderwood Farm Limerick, ME 3/25/18
 95 Sunnyside Maples Loudon, NH 3/31/18
 96 Trailside Sugar House Andover, NH 3/31/18
 97 5 Saplings Sugar House  Wilmot, NH 3/31/18
98 4-A Sugar Shack  Andover, NH 3/31/18
99 Grampa’s Sugar Barn  Danbury, NH 3/31/18
Spring Harvest Maple Farm is my local guy – I haven’t kept track of every time I’ve visited them. There may be others that I have visited a couple of time. I will try to keep better track.
There are also some that I have photographed off season or from the road.

Sweet Adventures 2017

Kate Wilcox Maple 3-14It’s here! Well, at least kinda sorta. After a week of nights in the 20’s and days in the 40’s some New Hampshire Maple Farms are already tapping (Laconia Daily Sun). Then again, last year Maine Maple farmers were also tapping this weekend (Bangor Daily News). In 2016, two weeks later, during traditional tapping time, temps were below 0 over night rising to 20’s during the day. It’s a risk to tap early as frozen equipment can create more work, but tapping too late can mean missing sap that might mean the difference between breaking even and losing after last summer’s drought.

But anyway, here we come. Like most of the items in the supermarket, most consumers are totally ignorant of the amount of work it takes to get Maple from the tree to the shelf. My quest, started slowly in 2009 is to appreciate Maple by exploring and sharing my findings with others via (mostly) photojournalism. I have now visited at least 52 Maple Farms, including at least 27 in 2016. That year I lucked out – the traditional Northern New England Maple Weekend of the last weekend in March fell on Easter. New Hampshire decided to have their festival the week before, Maine kept their regular date, and Vermont celebrated the weekend after. This year, since Easter is April 16, all of the northern New England states will be having their open houses on the weekend of March 25th and 26th. I don’t see when Massachusetts will be having a weekend though there is a “Maple Month Kickoff” on March 6th with the Governor in Fitchburg. Maybe I need to head south this year.

In the meantime, before I can get out and shoot (photographs), I am determined to finish the blog posts that I didn’t get up last year. I have a series of photos explaining the tapping process and more Sugarhouse 2016 photos from Vermont. I need to find a new place where I can put my book “Sweet Adventures” up for sale as Blurb requires it to be updated too often. I also plan to make maple photos available on Fine Art America. These photos are also also available as items such as phone cases, shower curtains and tote bags. If you see a photo you like and want an item not listed, let me know and I can make it available. May this sweet season be more productive than anticipated!