Maple Archives - Happy Vermont

Maple

  • Where to Go During Vermont Maple Open House Weekend
    Where to Go During Vermont Maple Open House Weekend

    Vermont Maple Open House Weekend is a chance to visit sugarhouses around the state for tours, tastings, sugar-on-snow, and more. More than 90 Vermont sugarhouses and locations are participating in the annual statewide event on March 23-24, 2024. Vermont's maple syrup is in demand more than...

  • Maple Sugaring in Johnson is a Marvin Family Tradition
    Maple Sugaring in Johnson is a Marvin Family Tradition

    Butternut Mountain is the tallest peak that falls entirely within the town of Johnson. On the mountain's southern slope, the Marvin family owns 600 acres where they produce maple syrup for their business, Butternut Mountain Farm. David Marvin started Butternut Mountain Farm in the early 1970s...

  • In Canaan, April’s Maple Embraces Food, Family and the Forest
    In Canaan, April’s Maple Embraces Food, Family and the Forest

    Vermont's maple sugaring season is short. But for April Lemay, running a maple business is a year-round, family affair. On 800 acres once owned by her grandparents, she operates April's Maple, a maple sugar farm and cafe in the small town of Canaan near the Canadian border....

  • Silver Lake Syrups in Barnard Offers More than Maple
    Silver Lake Syrups in Barnard Offers More than Maple

    Eric and Sonja Withington are returning to their roots. Eric grew up sugaring with his uncle in his hometown of Barnard. Thousands of miles away in Austria, Sonja spent her childhood foraging fresh greens, flowers, berries, and herbs to create herbal teas, syrups, and home remedies...

  • Happy Vermonters: Ana Fernandez Taps Into the Pure Joy of Sugaring
    Happy Vermonters: Ana Fernandez Taps Into the Pure Joy of Sugaring

    Ana Fernandez came to Vermont on a whim last year when a friend told her about a job opening at Nebraska Knoll Sugar Farm in Stowe. The Michigan native is now spending her second season sugaring at the farm, spending her days (and nights) boiling sap, changing the...

  • Happy Vermonters: A Love for Maple Sugaring Runs in the Family
    Happy Vermonters: A Love for Maple Sugaring Runs in the Family

    "My great-grandmother started this farm in 1918. She ran a bed and breakfast out of the house and made maple syrup on the property. When my father was a boy, she introduced him to the Vermont tradition of maple sugaring. One of the things we...

  • Famous Ski Family Taps into the Maple Syrup Business
    Famous Ski Family Taps into the Maple Syrup Business

    -Doug Brown boils sap at Slopeside Syrup in Richmond. The Cochran family is famous for its tiny ski hill and 70s-era Olympic champions. While the next generation of Cochrans is continuing the ski racing tradition, four family members are pouring their energy into producing Vermont maple syrup. Just...

  • Catching the Sugarmaking ‘Bug’ in Vermont
    Catching the Sugarmaking ‘Bug’ in Vermont

    Kenn Hastings knows all about catching the “sugar bug.” A sugarmaker at Bread Loaf View Farm in Cornwall, Hastings starting sugaring for a living 30 years ago.“There’s a love and passion that goes into being a sugarmaker,” says Hastings, 57. [caption id="attachment_5226" align="alignright" width="167"] Filmmaker Will...

  • Sugaring a Family Affair at Branon Maple Orchards in Fairfield
    Sugaring a Family Affair at Branon Maple Orchards in Fairfield

    On a thousand acres in Fairfield stand more than 68,000 maple trees tapped for sugaring season. The trees are part of Branon Family Maple Orchards, located in the heart of sugaring country in Franklin County, not far from the Canadian border. The Branons have been involved in...

  • Maple Sugaring at Bragg Farm

    [caption id="attachment_2279" align="aligncenter" width="648"] Doug Bragg works in his sugarhouse in East Montpelier.[/caption] Doug Bragg of Bragg Farm Sugarhouse is optimistic about this year's maple season. The weather in Vermont is cooperating with freezing nights and warm, sunny days, and Bragg is already spending most his...