Our Shop readied for the Open House 2012

The wreaths are ready and the shop is setup for the upcoming Holiday Open House.  A few last items need to be made to complete our preparations.  Luckily we are not getting any of the drenching rain from the west coast.  The weather will be seasonal which is good.  Remember our wreath greens are all freshly cut after hard frosts set the needles so they will hold on the branches for months.  You can even use them indoors and they will maintain the needles and great green color through the New Year in most cases.

HOURS this WEEKEND will be: 9 am to 4 pm Sat Dec 1st and 10 am to 4 pm Sun Dec 2nd

We still have 2 more Farmers Markets this year in Newburyport Ma.  Sunday Dec 9th and Sunday Dec 23rd both from 9am to 1pm

Hope you all had a wonderfully Happy Thanksgiving.  We’ve been working on our traditional day after meals.  Breakfast – apple pie, lunch – turkey sandwiches and dinner turkey, gravy , potatoes, peas and stuffing of course. Mom and I spent the day putting the prepped decorations on the real wreaths today and we have 15 done so far.  Here are a couple to check out.  Lots more to do this week and plenty of maple products to get packaged and ready too.

Williamsburg style fruit wreath

Frosted greens and cones with a cheery Cardinal

Holiday Open House 2012

Sat Dec 1st 9am – 4pm           Sun Dec 2nd 10am – 4pm

Hope you can drop by on Dec 1st or 2nd for our Holiday event.  Brian has been working for a week already making wreaths.  Friday he’ll make his second trip north for more prime balsam greens.  Here are a few photos from years past showing some wreaths to give you the flavor of what we will have to select from.

The holidays are coming fast.  In 2 weeks we’ll all be stuffed as full as those turkeys we’ll be enjoying.  Can’t wait myself to tuck into the mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy too.  Not to mention the traditionally amazing selection of desserts.  It’s not Thanksgiving in our family without Great Grammy Thurston’s Bread Pudding with Hard Sauce.  Yum-O!

HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE 

Dec. 1st and 2nd we’ll host our annual Open House featuring our own handmade balsam Holiday wreaths.  Brian went to Whitefield on Tuesday to cut the first batch of greens.  The mountains had a pretty frosted glow in the bright sun that day.  The wreath selection is varied and a few sizes are available.  Some just for Christmas, some whimsical, some with glitz.  Some are just simple with cones and berries (You know, like the famous mail order place but priced much less!).  We’ll have swags and a few kissing balls too.  And of course we’ll have plenty of maple syrup and other maple goodies for gift giving along with Maple Gift Baskets ready to go.

New Hours for the Holiday Season

Now that the Farmers Markets are pretty much done we will be opening from 12-4pm on Mondays and Fridays for folks to come by.  As always we can open on demand with just a phone call to Brian to be sure someone can open the shop up for you.  Tel 603-370-0908.

Happy Fall Y’all.  This is a wonderful time of year here in New England that I don’t think I could ever live without.  The colors on the trees, rustling leaves, the change in the air and the earthy smell of the season all seem to feed a need in my soul.  And of course there is always Halloween.  I think perhaps it’s my favorite holiday.  This year we have joined the Chester Scarecrow Clan by adding our “Jenness Beach Surf Club’ Member perched on the nose of a surfboard riding a thigh-high set (of leaves).  Not many will expect a surfer instead of a sugar maker!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Hope you all have something fun planned.  We’ll be off to a Kentucky Derby Party later today that should be a great time.  And don’t forget to check out the Super Moon tonight.  This last month our focus has been on getting the garden going.  Brian’s built two raised beds to expand our growing area and built a mini greenhouse covering for one.  It’s set up with a temperature probe that we can monitor in the house so when it was getting really cold last week we could pull the seedlings inside before the cold got them.  We have lettuce, radishes, onions, cabbage, beets and  carrots growing.  And we  have several varieties of potatoes to plant later on when we get warmed up a bit more.  We also added 10 blueberry bushes in 3 different varieties to the yard which will take a few years to get any production from.

FARMERS MARKET SCHEDULES for 2012

Derry NH     Wednesdays  from 3pm to 7pm    located at the Municipal parking lot starting

June 20th running through Sept 19th

Epping NH  Fridays from 3pm to 6pm    located at the Community Church 4 Main St

June 1st running through Sept 21st

Newburyport MA every other Sunday  from 9am to 1pm  located at the Tannery parking lot

starting June 10th through October

Things are starting to look normal in the house again.  This week has been spent getting all the maple related items back into the storage areas and reclaim the kitchen and dining rooms for household functions like cooking and eating!  Not that we don’t eat (obviously)but there is too much fast food consumed in maple season because the kitchen is otherwise in use.  This Saturday will be the last weekend hours we’ll have this season.

Our thanks go out to all of you for coming by and visiting us and sharing the simple but elegant products the maple trees provide.  We are always grateful for the gifts we are given by nature.

We’ll be open Saturday April 7th from 11 am to 4 pm.

What a great open house weekend we had.  Thank you to all who came out.  Many of you may have seen the little news clip for Maple Weekend on Channel 9 of Brian doing a tour.  One of our visitors was Bryan Folsom.  He was a smiling boy in grade school who was happy to get his own spile from our Brian as a souvenir.  And we had lots of smiles and Mmmmm sounds from folks enjoying the Maple Sundaes. Despite the cooler weather we came pretty close to selling out of ice cream.

We will have hours this weekend but won’t be boiling.  The season is officially over.  Brian has never pulled down so many dry spiles at the end of a season.

Saturday                   March 31st                   9 am – 1 pm

Sunday                      April  1st                      11 am – 4 pm

Ahhh…the first day of Spring ( or is it summer?)  We ate dinner on the deck tonight enjoying the warm weather and bug free time.  Now for the important stuff……..MAPLE WEEKEND OPEN HOUSE.

As always we’ll be open over the weekend to welcome visitors.  The “tours” we offer are in the sugarhouse.  Brian goes over the maple production process from start to finish over and over all day long.  So if you come in part way through just wait a bit and he’ll come back to the beginning.  Questions are always welcome anytime.  There are trees tapped close by to check out too.

In the store we’ll have a variety of samples of maple products to taste and buy.  And it would not be Maple Weekend without Maple Ice Cream Sundaes.  Those will be on sale too  ($ 1.50 ea) with your choice of maple walnut ice cream from Blakes (made with real maple syrup) or vanilla ice cream for those who’d prefer that, topped with our own fresh maple syrup and whipped cream.

Crowds can be expected so please try to park only on the right hand side of Candia Road or on SheepWash Road a short walk before you get to our place.  The driveway and parking area are dirt so proper footwear is urged if the weather is wet.

Sorry  - No Rest Rooms so plan accordingly.