The sweetest time of the year is upon us - maple syrup season.
Sugarhouses are open, the sap is running, but officially, at least for Vermont, the season starts March 11, when Gov. Howard Dean, a dentist in real life, taps a sugar maple tree at Jay Peak.Vermont is known far and wide for its maple syrup. By law, all Vermont maple syrup is produced under stringent quality requirements and is graded by color and taste. As my wife, who used to shun the real stuff, has discovered, choosing the right grade can change your opinion. Vermont grades its syrup as follows: Fancy - light amber in color, with a delicate maple taste; Grade A Medium Amber - medium color, pronounced maple bouquet; Grade A Dark Amber - dark color, robust maple bouquet, considered the staple syrup for all-around use; and Grade B - the strongest, darkest and most pronounced maple flavor.
Maple syrup isn't just for pancakes. As the Vermont maple producers note, its uses are limited only by your imagination; and, they add, it's a healthier and flavorful alternative to white sugar.
This is the time to take off on a weekend and visit the sugarhouses, where the maple sap is turned into syrup. It's a fascinating and tasty experience - it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Visitors are welcome at sugarhouses, where they can also taste sugar on snow with a pickle (the sourness of the pickle cuts the sweet taste of the maple so you can enjoy more syrup).
Vermont offers a free listing of maple sugarhouses open to the public; write to the Vermont Department of Agriculture, 116 State St., Drawer 20, Montpelier, VT 05620; telephone (802) 828-2416. Maple lovers can also simply stop at one of the Vermont welcome centers at the state's borders with Massachusetts or New Hampshire for a free copy.
For information on maple syrup happenings in New Hampshire, call for an NH Vacation Kit at (800) FUN IN NH, extension 100.
Unfortunately for Vermont, my wife, since we moved to western Massachusetts, a good 25 miles from the Vermont line, has become loyal to a local producer's product. And that is the good news for Bostonians who don't want to drive an extra hour or so to Vermont. Massachusetts has lots of sugarhouses along Route 2, within no more than a 2-hour drive, where you can see syrup being made and sample it on pancakes. In New Salem, just off Route 2 on Route 202 toward Amherst, is Hamilton Orchards (open weekends 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with breakfast served all day; call 508-544-6867); in Shelburne, Davenport Maple Farm (open weekends to April 7, from 8 a.m.- to 4 p.m., telephone 413-625-2866); and one of the landmarks along Route 2 is Gould's Sugarhouse, with its restaurant open daily as long as the evaporator is going, serving time-tested recipes from 8:30 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. telephone (413) 625-6170. You'll also see signs to many other sugarhouses, without restaurants, along Route 2.
Accommodations are plentiful in the Greenfield, Mass., area, and along Route 2.