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.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  We have an unbelievable new treat today.  Last fall while working at the Big E in Springfield MA  we were told about putting maple cream on plain donuts (the kind that are usually filled).  Market Basket did a special order for us and we picked them up at 8 am.  So they are fresh and fluffy and generously frosted with maple cream.  Of course we had to try them this morning and OMG.  Scrumptious! We’ll be selling them while they last for 1.50 ea.  We only got 2 dozen as a trial run to see what you all think.

Maple Cream Frosted Donuts

So how many of you have broken out the shorts and shades?  This is just such strange weather. But we’re looking forward to a chill tonight and maybe a freeze.  Earlier this week we ended up with some more Grade A Dark and some Grade B.  So those of you that have been waiting for “B”, we’ll have plenty packaged this weekend.

We got our order of mini ice cream cones in so we’ll be filling those up with Y-U-M-M-Y maple cream for the weekend too.  Hours will be 11 am to 4 pm Saturday and Sunday March 17th and 18th.

What a N-I-C-E surprise to see the sugar snow this morning.  Although it also drove our crazy squirrel to come back and try and chew her way into our house again this winter.  The trees have been gushing sap for the last two days so we have lots to boil.  Brian was up and out to collect before 6 am this morning to get to the trees he couldn’t collect yesterday.

For those of you who are looking for Dark Amber syrup we do have it now.  Still haven’t gotten into producing Grade B yet.  We also have Maple Taffy ( la Tire) for those who are looking for that treat.

Hours will be 11 am to 4 pm both days this weekend.

This week we’ve made some Dark Amber syrup.  The sap ran yesterday so Brian will be collecting and boiling today.  For those who are looking for Maple Taffy (la Tire), we have some of that too.

Hours this weekend will be 11am to 4 pm Sat and Sun.

We’ll be boiling both days.

The news from the rounds this morning is that we will have sap and be boiling all day today.  The mild temperatures and the bit of sun that poked out late yesterday gave the trees a nudge and there is sap out there.  Brian started collecting about 7:30 this morning and will collect until after 11 to get as much as possible in before we open today.  Hours today will be 12 – 4 pm.

Not everyone is too happy about this snow but we’ll take it for the chilling effect it will have on the trees.  We’ve been boiling and packing syrup most of the week along with making more maple cream and candy.  We will be open both days this weekend.

Hours  Sat 3/3          12-4 pm              We won’t be boiling.

             Sun 3/4          12-4 pm               We may be boiling depending on the weather on Sat.