Road trip: New England’s maple syrup season
New England is serving up maple syrup in delicious and unexpected ways

“Maple syrup season is a special time in New England,” said Adam H. Callaghan in Food & Wine. In February and March, as temperatures routinely cross above the freezing point when night turns to day, sap flows strongly in the region’s maple trees, meaning the sugarhouses will be boiling it down to create syrup and other sweet treats for locals and visitors. Here are some ideas, by state, on places to “taste the delicious results.”
Maine
Treehouse Brand Maple Syrup of Auburn taps black maple trees instead of sugar maples, then “boils the sap in a must-see sugar shack: a treehouse that looks like a huge locomotive steam engine.” You can also enjoy the unique syrup drizzled on the blueberry pancakes or stirred into the sea-salt maple latte served at the Alna Store in Alna.
Vermont
During Vermont Maple Open House Weekend, March 22-23, many of the state’s 3,000 sugarhouses welcome visitors. And maple syrup can be found in a wide variety of Green Mountain State products, including Vermont Spirits’ No. 14 bourbon and the beloved maple creemee, a flavor of soft-serve ice cream made with maple syrup and extra dairy fat that’s served statewide.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
New Hampshire
For all there is to know about how sap becomes syrup, head to The Rocks, a 1,400-acre estate in Bethlehem. The preserve’s New Hampshire Maple Experience includes a horse-drawn wagon tour, tapping lessons, a tour of a working sugarhouse, and a visit to a maple museum. Don’t forget to leave with a jug of the proprietary stuff.
Massachusetts
Old Sturbridge Village usually ends its sugaring season in early March, so get your syrup history lessons instead at the Northern Spy restaurant in Canton, where proprietor Marc Sheehan is a student of the subject and makes the syrup for his maple-bacon breakfast sausage and sticky maple pudding.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
October 13 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Monday's political cartoons include Donald Trump's consolation prize, government workers during shutdown, and more
-
Can Gaza momentum help end the war in Ukraine?
Today's Big Question Zelenskyy’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles hints at ‘warming relations’ between Ukraine and US
-
The Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners being released
The Explainer Triumphant Donald Trump addresses the Israeli parliament as families on both sides of the Gaza war reunite with their loved ones
-
The delightful, smutty world of Jilly Cooper
In the Spotlight Millions mourn the ‘Mrs Kipling of sex’
-
Lee Miller at the Tate: a ‘sexy yet devastating’ show
The Week Recommends The ‘revelatory’ exhibition tells the photographer’s story ‘through her own impeccable eye’
-
6 eye-catching rounded homes
Feature Featuring a central spiral staircase in Michigan and a Balinese-style estate with ocean views in Hawaii
-
A House of Dynamite: a ‘nail-biting’ nuclear-strike thriller
The Week Recommends ‘Virtuoso talent’ Kathryn Bigelow directs a ‘fast-paced’ and ‘tense’ ‘symphony of dread’
-
The Finest Hotel in Kabul: a ‘haunting’ history of modern Afghanistan
The Week Recommends Lyse Doucet’s sensitively written work traces over 50 years of Kabul’s ‘Inter-Con’ hotel
-
The Smashing Machine: Dwayne Johnson is ‘magnetic’ in gritty biopic
The Week Recommends The wrestler-turned-Hollywood-actor takes on the role of troubled UFC champion Mark Kerr
-
Shadow Ticket: Thomas Pynchon’s first novel in over a decade
The Week Recommends Zany whodunnit about a private eye in 1930s Milwaukee could be the 88-year-old author’s ‘last hurrah’
-
Southern barbecue: This year’s top three
Feature A weekend-only restaurant, a 90-year-old pitmaster, and more