ttt

Cranachin, do you happen to know of any places in MA that's open this weekend?

The Hutchinson Family sugar house in Canterbury NH looks like they have quite a bit going on. I haven't been there but Canterbury is a wonderful rural town. Dirt road conditions are getting pretty iffy right now so you might call ahead to check no matter where you go. The season is just beginning in our area (Concord NH). When I checked the list, there are some very small, casual operations listed. I like the place we go but they don't do a lot of extras like the Canterbury place is offering. Canterbury is close to Concord NH so check Concord for lodging. It has the usual chains. But, I think you also need more to do on the weekend than visit a sap house. Check out Red River Theater in Concord (independent). There's some half decent restaurants. Nice downtown. I don't think the winter farmers market is going on that weekend. There's still decent snow for snowshoeing and cross country and the city has some groomed trails if you have your own equipment.

I recall there are some affordable logdging options in Manchester NH (eg, courtyard marriott), and it's not too far from Concord area. Along the lines of dfrost's suggestion, Currier Museum of Art has a new exhibition opening on March 19 http://www.currier.org/upcomingexhibitions.aspx I think I recently read a good preview of Jon Brooks show in the Globe.

P.S. You probably can try Priceline to get a good deal for Manchester NH.

yk - I don't know specifically which ones are open this weekend. You can check out the MA Maple Producers Association website for a directory and map of members and contact the ones near you (or check their websites - many of them post what's going on and what days they are boiling).

dfrostnh - Thanks for the reference. I've wanted to visit Canterbury at some point. My plan for next weekend to was to visit several sugaring operations, making sure that some of them offer actual food (I can only take so much sugar). Obviously some offer breakfasts, but there is at least one in Vermont that will have free gourmet pizza at lunchtime! I can't remember which one right now, though.

I also love photography, so I figured I could have fun just taking pictures during my ramblings. I'm not a skier or snowshoer (although I might be able to get some great pix if I were). The theater might be fun, although I am also content just to read in the room in the evening, something I generally don't get to do enough of.

Check the weather. Parts of northern Vermont and New Hampshire got over 2 FEET of snow in the last 48 hours.
Bring your snowshoes and learn how to use them.

tomfuller - It seems like we LOST 2 feet of snow yesterday. I couldn't believe the difference between what it looked like when I left for work and when I returned home. Good point that it's senseless to make the trip if there's a huge storm hitting.

yk - Thanks for the Currier rec. Here's a list of Boston-area farms with sugaring demonstrations. You will need to call or check their websites to see when, but at least these definitely will offer them at some point.

http://www.massmaple.org/demos.php

And here's the directory of all MMPA members, which also has a link to a map of all locations. Can't believe I forgot to include it!

http://www.massmaple.org/directory.php

If you are looking for a maplefest this weekend there is one in Hebron,Connecticut check

www.hebronmaplefest.com/

Two suggestions...

1) Parker's Maple Barn in Mason, NH. Not only is it a good place to learn about the maple syrup process but MPB is an awesome breakfast place! Here's their link http://www.parkersmaplebarn.com/

2) It's not the same weekend (March 26th) but Stonewall Farm near Keene, NH does a sap gathering contest. "Learn more about the story of maple sugaring in New England! Each year, Stonewall Farm invites about twenty teams of draft horses and their owners to race along a course set up in the woodlands behind the Learning Center. They gather sap from old-fashioned buckets, which are then dumped into a large holding tank at the end of the run. Teams are judged for technique, time and quantity, etc." Here's their link http://www.stonewallfarm.org/content/march-events-0

Note I typed "MPB is an awesome..." but I meant to write "PMB (Parker's Maple Barn) is an awesome..." Sorry for the typo.

Thanks RLFox and emalloy! I won't be going to CT, but maybe yk will. And it's good to have Stonewall in mind in case I don't go on the Maple Weekend.

Here's the scoop on my Maple Weekend activity:

My friend B (and B's elementary-school children) joined me in visiting Spring Harvest Maple Farm in Barrington, NH, and Sweet Water Maple House in Candia, NH. These were the two closest to where we live, and as the children were with us, B didn't want to be on the road a long time.

In Barrington we first enjoyed the all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast served by the fire department (across the road from the sugar house). They featured Spring Harvest maple syrup, but it did not taste very maple-y to me (although it did to B and the kids). They also had Mrs. Butterworth's, but it wasn't getting any takers.

At the sugar house I sampled the maple cream, which had a delicate, sort of chocolaty flavor to me. B and the kids tried the maple candy as well, which they said tasted similar to the cream. We also had an explanation/demo of the tapping process and enjoyed the warmth of the wood-fired evaporator (snow flurries came through while we were there). Spring Harvest gathers sap from a "remote" location and trucks it over to the sugar house, so there was not a lot of tubing or buckets to be seen there.

While Spring Harvest is on a main highway, Sweet Water is down a dirt road (which was muddy in a couple of places). It is also a poultry farm, with chickens, turkeys, guineas, and even a few ducks and geese. Some of the birds were in pens and some were roaming free.

Sweet Water offered maple sundaes (warm maple syrup over vanilla ice cream), which were tasty, although again the syrup was not maple-y to me. It had more of a rich caramel flavor. They also had maple cotton candy, but the sample of it I had just tasted like sugar. The kids loved it, of course!

One possibility the Sweet Water owner offered for the lack of maple flavor is that it is still early in the season, so the flavor (as well as color) is more subtle. The strength of the flavor will increase as the season progresses. This is a good year for maple syrup, by the way, both in terms of quality and of volume.

Sweet Water was probably more interesting to the kids, as they had the various fowl as well as pigs and goats. They also had a creek running through the property, which was mesmerizing to all the children present. They wanted to float as many dead leaves, sticks, etc. down it as they could. The evaporator set-up was also a little different, and they had a tree with bucket taps as well as some with tubing. They also had a section (from a felled tree) that showed where all the taps had been over the years - pretty cool.

The biggest surprise of the day for me was how watery maple sap is. I grew up around lots of pine trees, which have a decidedly different type of sap.

So it was a fun outing, although more mundane than I had expected. But I did not come away from it with too much of a sugar buzz, so that was good!

Thanks again to all who made suggestions!

Thanks for reporting back! Sounds like the kids had a good time!