March 29 & 30, 2008 is the annual New Hampshire Maple Sugar Weekend. Every year New Hampshire produces around 90,000 gallons of the sweet stuff. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup. The sap runs from mid-February to mid-April as the weather warms. Freezing nights and warm days is the best weather for a good sap harvest. This weekend over 50 sugar houses will be open and welcoming visitors to this ancient tradition. There will be pancake breakfasts, music, sap collecting with horses & oxen, and sugar on snow. We have 3 sugar house in Rockingham County - Folsom’s Sugarhouse run by Brian and & Sue Folsom at 130 Candia Road in Chester; Anderson’s Mini-Maples,Steven Anderson at 47 Nottingham Road in Deerfield; and Peterson Sugarhouse,manned by Hank Peterson located at 28 Peabody Row in Londonderry. Strafford has one sugar house The Sugar Shack at 314 Route 4 in Barrington and this is the place to head to for a pancake breakfast. The Gowen’s have recently retired so be sure to call ahead for this year’s schedule with the new owners.

There are 4 grades of syrup produced: Grade A Light Amber is made with the first sap runs of the year it is light and delicate; Grade A Medium Amber has a darker color and richer flavor; Grade A Dark Amber is robust in flavor and excellent for cooking; and finally Grade B which is produced late in the season and is very dark and primarily used for cooking. Native Americans were the first to discover that maple sap could be processed into maple syrup and maple sugar. One legend has a chief hurling his tomahawk at a maple tree. The fresh wound caused the sap to seep. His wife collected the sap thinking it was water and cooked venison in it. The sweet flavor and liquid is how the process was discovered. Thus maple syrup was born.

So get out there this weekend and celebrate the joys of maple syrup in New Hampshire.

Shannon Aldrich, Keller Williams Coastal Realty Portsmouth NH