Things are moving along in preparation for the new season start.  Brian has been busy scrubbing buckets and spiles, putting a fresh coat of paint on the evaporator arch and getting the stack back up ready for the first firing of the season.  Not too excited about the prospect of 6-10 inches of snow this week.  But oh well.  This is New England after all!

There hasn’t been this kind of cold in January for quite a few years.  It will be interesting to see how these extensive cold patterns affect things in the next few weeks when we typically begin our sugar season.  Yesterday we attended the annual NH Maple Producers winter meeting.  The topic of the day was moving NH forward in adapting it’s state maple regulations to align with the newly established international grading standards.  The NH Department of Agriculture was on hand to outline the proposed changes to the existing language and ask for input from producers.  There will be a public hearing sometime over the summer when the new language is ready to go forward.  The new grading will allow all maple producing states and provinces to have the same labeling for their syrup.  The benefit is meant to help the consumer find the same flavor grade wherever they buy their syrup thus avoiding some of the confusion between light, fancy, dark, extra dark,  amber etc.  One state has adopted these new standards for this year and we hope NH will be ready to implement them starting next year.

On another note, we can’t keep the feeders filled for a day at a time with the cold.  The birds and squirrels are stripping them constantly.  The wood pile for the house is getting used up pretty quickly too as the wood stove has been put to extra duty.  We bought this stove shortly after we first moved here.  We guess we have had it for 35 years and it’s always performed great.  Of course we have had little incidents like Fisher Price people getting put down the vents that had to be fished out and a squirrel that got stuck in the chimney trying to come out through the stove connection.  Stay warm and stay tuned for progress on the sugaring season.

The summer and fall markets are pretty much over.  You can alway’s call to arrange a time to come by and pick up some product.  Right now we’re getting ready to attend the North American Maple Conference in Moncton, New Brunswick.  Should be a great 3 days of technical and research updates related to the maple industry.

Once we return the focus will turn to prepping for our Holiday Open House.  The north country has had plenty of cold weather to set the balsam needles that give our wreaths their longevity.  Mark you calendars for Dec 7th and 8th or drop us a line and we’ll send you a postcard reminder.

The farmers market season is well underway now as many did not start until late June. 

Our full Farmers Market schedule is as follows:

Every Wednesday          Derry NH      3-7pm                    14 Manning Street Derry NH

Every Thursday             Northwood    3-6:30pm              Intersection of Rte 202 & 4

Every Friday                   Epping          3-6pm                      McDonalds parking Lot at Exit 7

Every Saturday              Marblehead MA   9-12pm           Veteran’s Middle School parking lot 217 Pleasant St.

 2nd & 4th Sundays        Newburyport MA   9-1pm           The Tannery Marketplace 50 Water St.

The weather this weekend was interesting.  Snow in many places caught people dashing out to rescue plants late on Saturday night that seemed to be safe from any freezes.     Fortunately it didn’t get this far south so our annuals and veggies made out just fine.  The garden is shaping up – tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, garlic, carrots, bok choy, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, onions and a few assorted lettuces.

June will bring a few more Farmer’s Markets into our schedule.  Derry and Epping both will start in a few more weeks so look for us there.  Derry is Wednesdays 3-7 and Epping is Friday’s 3-6.

Spring is moving along nicely.  The weather’s been a pretty good mix of moderate days and moderate rains now and then.  Other parts of the country would give their eye teeth for the balance we are having.  We just got back from vacationing in Utah and Colorado.  Beautiful, magnificent country but not so much in the water department.  Everywhere we drove in Colorado they had fields rigged with long runs of walking watering systems to keep the grass growing for the hundreds and thousands of beef cattle being raised.  We visited the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah which are very different form one another but both spectacular in scope.  Mesa Verde in Colorado was interesting too as a point of origin for the Pueblo Indian culture.  And we learned something new.  There were American Indian groups way, way back that used spears to hunt buffalo.  The spears were named after the area where they were found (Folsom, New Mexico) and called “Folsom Tips” and they were used to hunt a larger species of buffalo called the “Folsom Buffalo” that was hunted to extinction.

The Farmers markets are starting up already for the year.  We will be at Newburyport every other Sunday 9-1 pm through the fall.  Thursdays we will be set up at the Northwood Farmers Market from 3 -6:30pm.  We are on tap for Epping and Derry again too which will be Fridays  and Wednesdays respectively starting next month.  More details on those times soon.

Fin!  C’est tout.  Yes, the season is over.  We never got the last run that might have come on Monday or Tuesday if the temperatures had been warmer and wind hadn’t been so cold.  So the buckets are 3/4 down and the rest will be down tomorrow.  Overall it was a good season for us.  We had the best year ever for Light Amber production and made lots of syrup throughout the season.

Hours Saturday April 6th 10 am  to 2 pm

We’ve signed up to attend the Newburyport Farmers Market again this year every other week and their new season starts Sunday April 14th.  It’s a very nice market and runs Sunday mornings from 9am thru 1pm.

Many thanks to all of you who make it possible for us to share our love of making maple syrup with you.  We are always thrilled to share our knowledge and encourage folks to give it a try.  And of course who can complain about the finished product!  Syrup, cream and candy to savor whether on pancakes and waffles or just to satisfy the sweet tooth when the need arises.

Best wishes ’til we se you next year (or maybe sooner) 

Sue and Brian