If you’re a maple syrup fan, this weekend is kind of like your Christmas morning.
Maple syrup producers all over the state will open their doors and invite you to taste their recent creations as part of the annual Maple Weekend. So realistically, you can spend both Saturday and Sunday driving all around, enjoying all that syrup season has to offer.
Sounds pretty delicious if you ask us.
But like the syrup they produce, each sugarhouse operator does a little something different for Maple Weekend. And that’s the beauty of the two-day event – you can go to a handful of places and get a unique experience at each one.
In addition to sampling a lot of freshly-made maple syrup, places will also offer up things like ice cream, cotton candy, milk, frappes, donuts – of course, using maple syrup.
And, since you use the Insider just about every week to plan out your life, we figured why not give you all the information to get started on what will surely be one of the tastiest adventures you’ve been on in a while.
Now, our research led us to a pair of spots in Concord and Bow that are making a big deal of the weekend. But we also realize this might be an event you don’t mind driving around for, so we also have included a few other spots outside our coverage area (shhh!) in case you feel like hitting the open road.
Mapletree Farm
Dean and Meg Wilber have been producing maple syrup for more than four decades, so they know a thing or two about running a sugarhouse. They’ll be making syrup all weekend and explaining to all of you how to make some top notch sticky stuff.
You can take a self-guided tour of their orchard and watch as the sap drips from the trees and flows through thousands of feet of tubing.
You can enjoy free samples of maple syrup, coated nuts, maple cream and sugar on snow, as well as try some maple cotton candy.
Mapletree Farm, located at 105 Oak Hill Road in Concord, will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days.
For more info, call 224-0820 or visit mapletreefarmnh.com
Treats Sugarhouse
Treats Sugarhouse has five small maple orchards totaling 700 taps, and is one of a few operations to only use sap collected from exclusively sugar maples.
The sap is filtered and concentrated via reverse osmosis before being boiled down to maple syrup using a wood fired evaporator. Sounds pretty technical, right? Well, that’s why when you visit Treats, there are sugarhouse tours and a full-scale explanation for what is done during the syrup production. It’s kind of like being in chemistry class.
Treats Sugarhouse will be open Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In addition to the tours, you can taste not only owner Bruce Treat’s creation, but syrups made at several area sugarhouses.
The sugarhouse is located at 3 Hop Kiln Road, Bow. For more info, call 774-2160 or email brucectreat@gmail.com.
More producers
A great resource to find all the spots in New Hampshire participating in Maple Weekend is the N.H. Maple Producers Association website (nhmapleproducers.com). So under the tab ‘find a sugarhouse,’ we looked within 12 miles of Concord and found a ton of places to extend your family-fun day trip.
In Loudon, you can check out Sunnyside Maples (1089 Route 106) and Red Roof Maples, 7064 Pleasant Street Ext.
Travel to Canterbury and you will find Lamb’s Maple Syrup, located at 228 Shaker Road, and Tamarack Farm (115 Asby Road). And just the next town over in Boscawen, where Ledgetop Sugar House (25 Oak St.) can be enjoyed.
Journey’s End Maple Farm, 295 Loudon Road, is a great spot if you head to Pittsfield, while Crow Valley Farm (1038 Hopkinton Road, Hopkinton) and Beaver Meadowbrook Farm (402 Route 103, Warner) are to the west of the city.
And trust us, there’s a lot more out there. You could literally spend your entire weekend driving around to taste maple syrup. So if that’s the case, we definitely suggest going to nhmapleproducers.com and mapping out a route.
Happy tasting!
