Maple Festival Weekend

You can’t make maple syrup just anywhere: First, you need sugar maples; then, you need just the right climate: freezing nights and warmer days to get the sap flowing. Lucky for us, the North Country is right in that sweet spot. And we make a lot: More than 500,000 gallons a year, the second-highest total in the U.S. This annual event, held at sugarhouses across the north, showcases the process of collecting sap and making syrup. What you see depends on where you visit: While some producers use state-of-the-art systems that draw sap from trees using networks of vacuum pumps and tubing, you can still find some that do it the old-fashioned way, with galvanized buckets, horses and metal spiles.