NH Maple Experience is a Springtime Treat

Chef Adam serves up Maple goodness.

If you haven’t visited the New Hampshire Maple Experience yet this spring, we invite you to come on over to The Rocks Estate this weekend for some sweet maple goodness!

Beyond the delicious maple syrup tastings, the Maple Experience includes hands-on learning about the regional springtime tradition of maple sugaring, which reaches back to the earliest European settlers of New England and the Native Americans before then.

Make sure to bring your appetite, as Maple tours include a syrup tasting, complete with freshly made donuts and sour pickles (post a photo of your best sour pickle face on our Facebook page). We’ll also be serving up piping hot pancakes, and will feature chef demos – and tasting samples – both Saturday and Sunday.

Chef Adam from the Indian Head Resort returns to the Maple Experience on Saturday from noon - 1p.m. to cook up – and share – two delicious maple recipes: Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette (atop a crumble salad with romaine lettuce, cranberries, bleu cheese and walnuts) and Maple-glazed Scallops with a Maple Beurre Blanc over pasta.

Chef Kirk from the Sunset Hill House will join us Sunday at noon and cook up Maple Marinated Barbeque Shrimp; an endive salad with candied pecans, dried cranberries, and crumbled goat cheese and topped with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette; and Maple Shortbread.

For these recipes and others featured during past Maple weekends, check out the recipe page on the New Hampshire Maple Experience website.

The New Hampshire Maple Experience is offered at The Rocks Estate this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., as well as next Saturday, April 7. To find out more about the Maple Experience and all it includes, please visit the New Hampshire Maple Experience website.

Celebrate Spring with the NH Maple Experience

The sap is running!

Spring has sprung here in the North Country, and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate than by enjoying the New Hampshire Maple Experience! We opened the 2012 Maple season at TheRocks Estate on Saturday, and we’ll keep on celebrating for the next three weekends.

That means maple syrup tastings, chef demonstrations, horse-drawn wagon rides, and hands-on learning about maple sugaring.

This weekend we’ll welcome two local chefs to the Maple Experience, and you won’t want to miss what they’re cooking up. On Saturday, Chef Adam Parker from the Indian HeadResort will be here from noon-1p.m. dishing up a divine crumble salad with romaine lettuce, cranberries, blue cheese and walnuts topped with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette. He’ll follow that with Maple-glazed Scallops with a Maple Beurre Blanc over pasta. Yum!

And if you missed Chef Orlo Coots of the Adair Country Inn & Restaurant last weekend, you’re in luck – he’ll be back at The Rocks on Sunday from noon-1 p.m. making his delicious Maple Balsamic Glaze, oh-so-good Whipped Maple Mascarpone, and delectable Walnut Angel Food Chiffon Cake.

Sour pickle face.

As if that’s not enough, the Maple Experience includes a tasting of our own local maple syrup, accompanied by the traditional fresh donut and sour pickle – the perfect blend of sweet and sour! We’re inviting all our Maple visitors to post a photo of their best “sour pickle face” on our Facebook page this season.

To find out more about the Maple Experience and all it includes, please visit the New Hampshire Maple Experience website.

Happy maple sugaring season!

Maple Parties at The Rocks Estate

Birthday girl Maddie celebrates at The Rocks.
Looking for a great party idea? Bring your party to the New Hampshire Maple Experience! 

We offer group rate reservations for parties, and you're welcome to personalize the celebration in an area reserved for gifts and cake. Your group can join our regular Maple Tours. The whole experience makes for a fun, educational, and unique party experience!  

For more information, please give us a call at The Rocks at (603) 444-6228 or email us at info@therocks.org. Let us help you get the party started!

N.H. Maple Experience starts this weekend!

Sap lines carrying the sap to the sugar house.

The trees are tapped, the sap is flowing, and the weather forecast looks fabulous for this weekend’s kick-off to the New Hampshire Maple Experience!

We have lots of fun in store for visitors during Maple season, which will run the next four weekends at TheRocks Estate. From learning the history and process of maple sugaring and touring our picturesque property via horse-drawn wagon to sampling our very own maple syrup and getting a taste of some delicious maple recipes, we plan to pack a wallop of a maple punch into your Maple Experience!

Chef Orlo Coots of Adair Country Inn & Restaurant will be on hand this Saturday from 11 a.m. – noon, cooking up three delectable treats: Maple-Balsamic Glaze, Whipped Maple Mascarpone, and Walnut Angel Food Chiffon Cake. YUM! Chef Orlo will show you some of his culinary secrets and tips for incorporating maple goodness into your own cooking. You won’t want to miss these tasty treats!

The New Hampshire Maple Experience opens for the 2012 season Saturday, March 17. Maple tours will be offered throughout the season, on March 17, March 24-25, March 31-April 1, and April 7, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. each day. We recommend making reservations, which you may do by e-mailing us at info@therocks.org or calling 603-444-6228.

To see what we're doing to prepare for maple sugaring, check out our latest YouTube video.

We hope to see you at The Rocks for some Maple fun!

Stay Awhile – with the N.H. Maple Experience!

Sugar maker Brad Presby in the sugar house.

It’s one of the most welcome rites of spring in northern New England – maple sugaring season! And The RocksEstate invites you to join us on the farm for a hands-on lesson in creating maple syrup during our New Hampshire Maple Experience, complete with a horse-drawn wagon ride through the picturesque estate, a visit to our sugar house, delectable cooking demonstrations by stellar chefs, and tasty treats galore!

Need more enticing? Why not make a weekend out of your Maple Experience! The Rocks is teaming up with a dozen local inns and hotels to offer discount packages during sugaring season. Ranging from quintessentially cozy New England inns to family friendly resorts, our list of lodging partners offers a place for every taste.

The New Hampshire Maple Experience will take place March 17, March 24-25, March 31-April 1, and April 7.

During your Maple visit, you’ll learn how to identify sugar maple trees, help tap a tree to collect the sap, see the workings of a modern collecting system up close, and visit our sugar house as fourth-generation sugar maker Brad Presby demonstrates the process of creating our region’s sweet nectar. It’s all capped off by a syrup tasting, complete with the traditional sour pickle and freshly made donut pairing.

We hope to see you this sugaring season at the New Hampshire Maple Experience!