Vermont Maple Syrup

Sugaring works on a narrow window: sap runs when nights freeze and days thaw, which in Vermont is a few weeks in March and early April, and once the buds swell the season is over. Sugar maples are tapped with spouts running to buckets or, more often now, to vacuum tubing strung through the woods, and the sap goes to a sugarhouse to be boiled - roughly forty litres of sap for one of syrup, which is why the steam pours out of the roof vents for days. Vermont produces more maple syrup than any other state by a wide margin. Grades are set by colour and taste rather than quality, and the darker late-season syrup is stronger, not worse.

What you actually see

• A season of a few weeks - nights freezing, days thawing.
• Tubing strung through the woods - now more common than buckets.
• Boiling in the sugarhouse - forty parts sap to one of syrup.
• Grades by colour, not quality - dark late syrup is simply stronger.

When to go

March and early April; the open house weekend is the last full weekend in March. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The season is short and moves with the weather - a warm March ends it early. Roads to sugarhouses are mud in that period. Outside the season you see equipment, not boiling. Syrup is expensive, and it should be.

Nearby

The Green Mountains run the length of the state; Montpelier is central.