“The Secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Dan Millman
Welcome to the 43rd season at Mapletree Farm! Concord’s oldest and only continuously operating sugarhouse.
Over the years, you have heard and read about the goings-on here in East Concord. The wildlife, farm activities & upgrades, regulations and of course, no sugaring conversation would be complete without commentary concerning the weather. Well, the theme of 2017 through 2018 has been change and the changes have been huge!
Shortly after the 2017 season, Mapletree Farm began the largest project to date by far. Feeling that the old sugarhouse, despite 40 years of reliable service, just wasn’t going to continue to meet the needs of the operation, or remain compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, the time had come to break out the pencil and paper and design a new facility. As happens, pencil and paper turned into hammer and chisel and saw and the result is now nearly complete.
The new sugarhouse includes a canning kitchen, a store front, restroom facilities, and of course, the original sugarhouse building, relocated and repurposed to house the evaporator only. We designed the new building with the public in mind, to allow you to visit more comfortably and to make sure you get to see the operation, all of the operation, in one visit.
A self-guided tour in New Hampshire’s only planted maple orchard in production leads visitors into the building at the same place that the sap enters. Visitors can then follow the sap at 2% sugar content to syrup at 66%, asking any and every question that comes to mind, along the way.
As written previously we generally do not tap as early as others. We still like to wait until later in February when the sap is sweeter. Being otherwise very busy with the construction project, we were a little later than typical getting into the woods and tapped this season, however we are now on our way to making some great syrup and plenty is available for sale.
This year our Annual Open House Weekend is March 24th and 25th which is the traditional New Hampshire Maple Weekend. Come see how our maple syrup is made, filtered and packaged. Come and visit, take a tour through the planted maple orchard, watch the sap dripping into buckets and traveling down the tubing network into the sugarhouse. Sample our maple products including maple syrup, maple cream, and sugar on snow. And as always feel free to ask us questions. We love to tell people about maple!
Come and have a Blast!