Maple syrup season is a special time in New England. Also known as maple sugaring season, it’s the period when the nights freeze and the days thaw, causing lightly sugary tree sap to run. “That’s important to our people as a first sign of spring, a new beginning,” says Lorén Spears, an enrolled member of the Narragansett tribe and the executive director of the Tomaquag Museum in Exeter, Rhode Island. One of the annual 13 Thanksgivings that mark a reciprocal life with nature, it meant a sweet harvest for Indigenous tribes after surviving another hard winter living primarily off stored food.
Today, it still means the arrival of sweet treats for locals and visitors who can tour farms throughout New England — typically from February through April, although climate change is affecting the season, shifting it earlier or shortening it. Here’s where to learn how sugarhouses or sugar shacks turn maple sap into maple syrup and, most importantly, taste the delicious results.
Coggeshall Farm Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island is included in this article.
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