By TORY DENIS
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CLAREMONT — Local maple sugar producers held open houses this weekend, giving out samples of warm syrup and taffy on snow in celebration of the 23rd annual New Hampshire Maple Weekend, held March 23-24.
Sugar-makers open their doors to the public here and across New Hampshire to demonstrate both the centuries-old craft and modern methods of maple sugaring.
At the family-run Hillside Sugarbush Farm In Cornish, Nick Lukash, his mother Pat Lukash, and several friends and family members welcomed visitors with hot coffee, homemade donuts, and syrup samples. Nick, who helps oversee the maple operation with his father Jim Lukash, demonstrated for visitors how the maple syrup production process works.
The farm operates 1,800 maple taps. As each load of sap is collected and brought to the sugar house, they produce the refined syrup through reverse osmosis, boiling the water off with an oil-fired evaporator before drawing out the final product.
They keep the taps maintained through frequent trips on snowshoes, 4-wheeler or snowmobile throughout the season.
The family also makes maple candy, sugar, maple butter, maple cream and other assorted products, along with several sizes of bottled maple syrup, available seasonally at the farm and also at the Cornish General Store.
In Claremont, children played outside in the sun as the owners of Twin Hill Farm on Piper Hill Road fed wood into a fire, boiling syrup down and pouring taffy over snow in their small, family-run operation. The farm offers bottled maple syrup in varying sizes, along with homemade jams, at a neighboring farm stand.
Also in Claremont, owners AJ and Melissa Maranville of Sugar Bee Farm greeted visitors on Saturday at the farm’s sugar house on Windy Hill Road, where they gave out maple buttered popcorn and had maple syrup boiling and products including maple-bacon brittle, maple candy pops and handmade wreaths available for purchase.
The Maranvilles are also the owners of the Granite State Hobbies on Pleasant Street in Claremont, and have their maple products available for sale there and at the farm.
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