Sunday, March 25, 2007

N.E. syrup makers’ sticky season is here



Sunday, March 25, 2007

N.E. syrup makers’ sticky season is here
Worcester Telegram (MA)
Maple sugarhouses open to the public
By Lisa Rathke THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Mary Taft cleans the evaporator in preparation for an open house at the Taft Farm sugarhouse. At the Taft farm, it’s all hands on deck when the sap starts flowing. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)


HUNTINGTON, Vt.— At the Taft farm, it’s all hands on deck when the sap starts flowing. Mary milks the cows with one helper so her husband can run the sugarhouse, boiling sap into syrup. Their son Tim, who normally feeds the cows, trucks sap down off the mountain in a 1,000-gallon tank to the sugarhouse, feeding the boiler. This weekend the family and other syrup producers in Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire will open their sugarhouses to the public, offering a glimpse of sap boiling in metal troughs and steam rising through the roof and its sunlit cracks. Visitors will get to sample Taft’s Milk & Maple Farm syrup, maple fudge, doughnuts topped with homemade maple cream, and maple cotton candy, streaming from a machine.

It’s good for business, said Mary Taft, after she cleans the outside of the metal evaporator. “People come and look and see and say, ‘Oh, this smells good, I have to buy some.’ To actually see it being made, it’s perfect.”


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