Sweet Maple Weekend
By Kathi Caldwell-Hopper
It marks the winding down of winter, and it means spring cannot be many weeks away. When you see smoke billowing from the chimney of little sugar shacks all over the Lakes Region, you will know it’s maple syrup season, the sweetest time of year for maple lovers.
Maple syruping is so popular in NH that it has even taken an official flair, with the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association (NHMPA) kicking off NH Maple Month on March 5 at 11:30 am at Mapletree Farm in Concord. At that time, a ceremonial tree-tapping will take place, with Governor Chris Sununu on hand for the Governor’s Tap.
Boiling sap at Big Lake Maple. (Courtesy photo)
According to information provided by NHMPA, for nearly 50 years, the Governor’s Tap has welcomed the start of maple sugaring season in NH. Each year, the event is hosted by a different NH sugar house to highlight the richness of the state’s maple sugaring landscape.
Most of us love the taste of maple, but as those who make maple syrup will tell you, it is a long process and sometimes you stay up all night tending to the syrup. You watch the weather; you know that certain temperatures and conditions will make for a better season of maple syrup. You tap the trees, you tend to the sap house, you stoke the fire and you do it again and again.
Maple producers in New Hampshire love what they do, from opening up the sap house and getting everything ready for a late winter/spring season of maple syrup production to the first bottle of sweet maple syrup they produce each year.
If you want to learn in-depth about maple syruping, and the history of this centuries-old practice, The New Hampshire Maple Producers Association, Inc. is definitely helpful. The non-profit trade association is dedicated to promoting the high quality of NH’s maple sugaring tradition. The NHMPA organizes several public events throughout the year, including NH Maple Weekend on March 21 and 22 this year, with sugar houses open to the public; NH Maple Sugaring Month; the Felker Prize for NH youth and the tapping of the first maple by the Governor. Learn more at www.nhmapleproducers.com.
New Hampshire Maple Month continues throughout March, celebrating NH’s great maple sugaring tradition. Over the weekends of March 7 and 8, March 14 and 15, March 21 and 22 and March 28 to 29, sugar houses across the state welcome the public to experience the process of maple sugaring, with many offering sugaring demonstrations, free tours, samples and family-friendly activities. The largest event, the 25th annual NH Maple Weekend, takes place on March 21 and 22.
Sweet maple syrup at Big Lake Maple. (Courtesy photo)
On Maple weekend, visitors can experience the sap boiling process and ask questions. Some of the sugarhouses have been making maple syrup for years. For example, this year marks the 45th year of maple sugaring at Maple Tree Farm’s current location where a state-of-the-art sugarhouse expansion took place in 2017. The sugarhouse sits on the edge of New Hampshire’s largest and, perhaps the only, tapped planted maple orchard. (Mapletree Farm’s sugarmaker Dean Wilber has been making maple syrup for 73 years. He remembers being seven years old and driving his uncle’s horses in his sugarbush. A lot has changed in maple sugaring techniques since then.)
Big Lake Maple in Wolfeboro will take part in Maple Weekend; this is their fifth year of producing maple syrup. Big Lake Maple started in 2015 when owner Ken decided to tap a few of the trees behind his parents’ house as a fun little winter project. Maple sap was collected into milk jugs and boiled in pots on turkey fryers. Ken and his father, Marc, produced enough maple syrup for the family to enjoy. Over the next two years, Ken upgraded the setup to two altered oil drums with hotel pans to boil off syrup. The 50 or so taps produced about 5 to 10 gallons of maple syrup each year. The 2018 season was welcomed with 60 or so taps and small upgrades to the homemade evaporators. Big Lake Maple produced roughly 16 gallons of maple syrup that year. The 2019 season saw massive upgrades to the operation. As we head into the season of tree tapping and maple syrup production, Ken says, “With the 2020 season beginning, we’re excited to see what this season will bring us!”
Big Lake Maple will be open to the public on March 21 from 10 am to 5 pm, during Maple Weekend, with sampling, products for sale, sap production in full swing, and more. “We do a lot with buckets,” Ken adds. “If visitors bring their kids, we let the youngsters help collect the sap in buckets.” This is a fun way for kids to get hands-on learning. With over 300 trees, Big Lake Maple is located at 31 Richard Road in Wolfeboro. Visit www.biglakemaple.com for information, or visit their Facebook page.
In the Tilton area, head to Just Maple at Green Acres Farm for a variety of maple products, and lots of fun during Maple Weekend. Maple syrup production at the farm began over 20 years ago as a 4H project. Just Maple owners Roger and Barbara took a liking to maple syruping and are going strong in the business today! For over 10 years, Just Maple has participated in Maple Weekend and the business is among the most popular on the maple tour. There are tours, free samples, the Just Maple store, information on how to tap trees, and a look inside the sugarhouse where sap is boiled and becomes maple syrup. Just Maple is located at 475 School Street in Tilton; call 603-520-2373.
Tending to the fire for sap production at Big Lake Maple. (Courtesy photo)
Robie’s Sugar House and Sawmill at 217 Town Pound Road in Alexandria is a unique place. Owner Brett Robie is in his 15th year of operating the maple syrup house and will be open on Maple Weekend so the public can stop by, see how syrup is made and sample treats. During the warm weather months, Brett operates a sawmill on the property that was originally run by his grandfather many years ago. For information, call 603-455-2171.
These are but a few of the many sugarhouses that will be open during Maple Weekend in NH. Each has a unique story and many have been in families for generations, with maple sugaring traditions and practices passed down over the years.
According to www.nhmapleexperience.com, Native Americans were the first to discover that sap from maple trees could be turned into maple syrup and sugar. We cannot be certain what the process was like those many years ago, or how the discovery was made, but maple sugaring has been going on for generations.
Today, the maple syrup production season generally runs from mid-February (or a bit later) until mid-April. The process, in simple terms, goes like this: sap in maple trees is frozen during the cold winter and when temperatures rise a bit, the sap in the trees begins to thaw. It then starts to move and builds up pressure in the tree. If you have noticed sticky sap oozing from any cut in a maple tree, this is the sap that is used for maple syrup production. Ideal conditions for the sap to flow are freezing nights and warm, sunny days, which create the pressure for a good sap harvest.
If you drive around the state, you are likely to see buckets and plastic tubing around maple trees here and there. This is how maple producers tap the sugar maples. They drill a small hole in the tree trunk and insert a spout, and then a bucket or plastic tubing is fastened to the spout. If you assume the sap dripping from the tree looks like amber or darker colored maple syrup, you would be wrong. The sap at that point is clear. Once collected, it is taken to the sugarhouse and boiled down in an evaporator over a very hot fire. Steam rises and the sap becomes concentrated until eventually is turns to syrup. It is taken from the evaporator and filtered, graded and bottled. It is not a quick or easy process; it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.
Plan to attend Maple Weekend in NH on March 21 and 22 and talk with the experts about how they make maple syrup. You will hear the pride in their voices and share their enthusiasm for maple sugaring, a process that takes patience, diligence and often a respect for an old-time practice passed from one generation to the next.
For information and a list of NH sugarhouses and maple syrup events, visit www.nhmapleproducers.com.