N.H. Maple Experience returns this summer, Springtime happenings at The Rocks

How sweet it was! Thanks to all of you who visited The Rocks during the 2014 New Hampshire Maple Experience. We hope you all had as much fun as we did learning about maple sugaring and exploring the farm.

If you missed the season – or just can’t wait until next year to return – don’t fret! Our self-guided New Hampshire Maple Experience returns to The Rocks July 1. The self-guided tour includes a walk along the Maple Trail and a visit to the sugarhouse and Maple Museum.

The Maple Trail begins at the main parking area of The Rocks and meanders along a grassy path through the forest, beside stone walls, and into the sugar orchard. Signs along the trail explain maple sugaring, from the earliest sugar makers and modern techniques to the tools of the trade and how to identify a sugar maple tree. 

The Maple Trail leads visitors to the sawmill/pigpen building, constructed in 1906 and artfully restored to serve as The Rocks’ sugarhouse and interactive Maple Museum, where visitors will learn more about the history and process of making maple sugar. (Read more about the intriguing history of The Rocks Estate here.) An arch between the sugarhouse and museum provides a stunning view of the Presidential Mountains.

There’s always something happening at The Rocks, and visitors are welcome in all seasons. Our trails are open daily, year-round. You’ll find more information about the trails here. We also host natural history discussions throughout the year, on a variety of topics. To see what’s happening, please check out our online calendar. 

We hope to see you soon at The Rocks Estate!

The New Hampshire Maple Experience museum: A journey through the history of sugaring

When did people first make maple syrup and sugar? How was the sap collected from sugar maple trees 300 years ago? What has changed in the modern era of sugaring?

Visitors to the New Hampshire Maple Experience will discover the answers to these intriguing questions – and many more! The long history of maple sugaring is on display in our interactive museum. Housed in one of the many historic buildings restored for modern use at The Rocks Estate, the museum offers visitors a centuries-long tour through the springtime tradition of sugaring.

(See a panoramic view of the inside of the museum here.)

In our museum, visitors will learn the legends of how the native people of the Northeast discovered the sweet sap of sugar maples and learned to cook that sap down to a syrupy sugar. They’ll see the evolution of sugaring as European settlers adopted and adapted the tradition. And they’ll discover how maple syrup is made today and see the process unfolding in the working sugar house adjacent to the museum.

While modern day sugaring involves the same basics of collecting sap and boiling it into syrup and sugar, the tools and equipment involved look considerably different now than they did when settlers first arrived. From wooden spiles and hollowed out logs, to metal taps and buckets, to plastic tubing, the evolution of sugaring is on display in our museum. 

Wooden spiles, metal taps, and plastic tubing on display.

One place this evolution is easily seen is in the type of taps – or spiles – and spouts used to extract sap from the trees. Early sugar makers used whittled wooden spiles and spouts to allow the sap to flow from the tree into buckets placed below. During the 19^th Century, sugar makers replaced the wooden spires with metal taps. These taps included hooks for hanging buckets to collect sap. In the mid-20^th Century, some sugar makers incorporated plastic taps and plastic tubing into their sugaring operations, allowing them to eliminate some of the tedious work of transporting sap from the tree to the sugar house via bucket and barrel. 

(Here's a video of the different taps and spiles used through the years.)

While many sugar makers continue to use traditional metal taps and buckets, blue lines of plastic tubing weaving through the forest are common in today’s sugar making operations.

When you visit the New Hampshire Maple Experience at The Rocks, you’ll experience first-hand the traditions and innovations of maple sugaring! Read more about the Maple Experience here.

Create a self-guided Maple Experience this summer

Spring wildflowers

If you missed the New Hampshire Maple Experience earlier this spring, don’t fret! You can create your own self-guided Maple Experience this summer at The Rocks Estate. A walk on our Maple Trail leads you along old stone walls, through our sugar orchard, and to the sugarhouse and Maple Museum. Along the way you’ll spot wildflowers, birds, and mountain vistas.

The sugarhouse and museum reopen June 1 (the same day as our 33^rd Annual Wildflower Festival), but the trails at The Rocks are open year-round, every day, from dawn to dusk.

The Maple Trail begins at the parking area, where you’ll head up the grassy path to the right of Fanny’s Playhouse and turn left into the woods. The wide trail leads visitors through the forest and past the site of the Glessner Family’s “Big House.” John Jacob and Frances Glessner created The Rocks in the late 1800s, and their family spent summers here for many years. While the 19-room mansion designed by Isaac Elwood Scott no longer stands, the Maple Trail passes by the bee house, where Frances kept bees for a time. (Read more about the fascinating history of The Rocks here.) 

Beyond the bee house the Maple Trail turns left through a break in the stone wall and meanders down through the sugar orchard. Look for the blue and black sap lines running through the trees. Interpretive signs along the trail explain the process of maple sugaring, a springtime ritual at The Rocks and throughout New England for many generations. You’ll learn why sap flows in sugar maple trees during the warming days of early spring, how to identify a sugar maple from other trees in the forest, and some of the history of sugaring. 

The trail ends at the former sawmill/pigpen building, constructed in 1906 and carefully restored for use as The Rocks’ sugarhouse and Maple Museum. (Take a look inside the Museum with our online panoramic view.) In the sugarhouse, you’ll see some of the equipment used to boil sap into maple syrup and sugar and view a video of the sugaring process. The interactive museum features both modern and historic sugaring equipment. Both open June 1. The magnificent view from the building is of Mt. Washington and the Presidential Range.

To return to the parking lot, head up the road (to the left, as you’re looking at the mountains) a bit and follow the signs back into the woods. The trail winds up the hill and back to Fanny’s Playhouse, where you’ll find maps and information about some of the other trails at The Rocks.

A walk along the Maple Trail takes 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how long you spend taking in the scenery, reading the signs, and enjoying your time in this beautiful place. Leashed pets are always welcome at The Rocks.

Maple sugaring step one: ID your Tree

How does a Brit, transplanted to Bethlehem, New Hampshire, figure out which trees in the northern forest will yield the sweet sap that boils down to maple syrup? Here’s Rocks Estate manager Nigel Manley’s story…

Shaggy bark + long-forgotten bucket = sugar maple!

During my first sugaring season at The Rocks, it was definitely a challenge to figure out the art of making maple syrup. I hadn’t even tasted maple syrup until I moved to the States at age 23. Coming from the UK (where there is only one native maple – the field maple), the most difficult part of maple sugaring for me was trying to figure out which trees to tap.

Branching, buds, and bark are the three keys to identifying trees in winter, when we don’t have their distinct leaf shapes to tip us off as to their species. My first maple season, I set off into the snowy late winter woods to find sugar maples – opposite branches; buds that are small, sharp and brown to reddish-brown in color; bark that can be smooth on younger trees, but is shaggy on older trees.

I quickly found out that for a novice tree seeker, it’s pretty easy to determine opposite branching (which in this region means ash, red maple, or sugar maple), but getting a good look at buds that are 20 to 40 feet above me was nearly impossible.

To compound the challenge, I was wearing snowshoes – another thing I’d never tried in the UK. As I trudged through the forest, there was plenty of tripping, falling, and sliding between glacial erratics as I searched for the seemingly elusive sugar maple. As I looked high above into the branches, struggling to see those little buds, I kept crossing the backs of my snowshoes and toppling over.

Apparently, falling over in deep snow had an effect, as I soon had a revelation: the easiest way to find a sugar maple in a sugar orchard (which contains several species of trees) is to look for the tree trunks that have holes drilled into them from previous sugaring seasons. (Rarely, there's even a sap bucket left behind, as in the photo above.) One caveat to this technique is that it only works if you’re in a sugar orchard that has been tapped previously by a knowledgeable sugar maker.

At the New Hampshire MapleExperience, we teach visitors how to identify sugar maple trees – and we do it from the comfort and safety of a horse-drawn wagon. No snowshoes, no tipping over into the snow, just pure fun as we pick out ash, red maple, sugar maple, and New Hampshire’s state tree, the white birch, from the forests around the farm.

Did you know…. There are over 100 species of maple tree in the world (and seven in New Hampshire), and syrup is made primarily from the sap of the sugar maple. Other species, like the red maple and boxelder, may be tapped to make syrup, but the sap of the sugar maple contains the highest sugar content – roughly 2 percent – and produces a lighter and more flavorful syrup.

Keep your eyes on our Maple Blog for more about sugaring and the New Hampshire Maple Experience, from tapping trees and maple cooking demos to what happens in the sugar house and our interactive Maple Museum.

The sugar maple's gift to autumn: crisp color

The springtime gift of the sugar maple tree is the sap used to make maple syrup and sugar. In autumn, the sugar maple offers another gift: crisp color that stretches from golden yellow to brilliant red and paints the hillsides like a calico quilt.

There is, perhaps, no more splendid time to visit The Rocks Estate and the New Hampshire Maple Experience than during the color explosion of autumn. The Maple Museum is open through Columbus Day for self-guided tours that will bring visitors into a landscape of color to the museum and sugar house, contained in one of many carefully restored historic buildings at The Rocks.

Guided maple tours are also available to bus groups and those looking for a personalized experiential tour. 

As always, our trails are open daily, from dawn to dusk, for visitors to meander and explore. Smart phone users may enjoy the Mobile Tour of The Rocks Estate, which uses QR codes to share the property’s history, modern day forest conservation and management efforts, and information about the varieties of Christmas trees grown on the farm.

Speaking of Christmas trees… tag-your-own Christmas tree season runs weekends at The Rocks from September 22^nd - October 22^nd. Take in the fall foliage as you search for and mark your own perfect Christmas tree, which you’ll be able to collect and pay for beginning November 17^th, when The Rocks officially opens for the Christmas tree season. The two holiday shops will also be open at The Rocks during tag-your-own weekends.

So, whether you want to get an early start on your holiday shopping, are interested in learning more about the age-old tradition of maple sugaring, or just want to take in the unbeatable scenery of The Rocks Estate in autumn, we hope you’ll visit us this season!

Celebrating Wildflowers at The Rocks Estate

With maple sugaring season a sweet, distant memory, we’re diving into summer this weekend with the celebration of the 32^nd Annual Wildflower Festival at The Rocks Estate June 2. The event also kicks off the annual Fields of Lupine Festival, celebrated throughout the region.

Pink Lady's Slipper at The Rocks Estate

If you’d love to learn more about botany, are wondering which wild flowers and plants are edible, or just enjoy roaming the woods to explore nature’s beauty, the Wildflower Festival has something you’ll love!

The Maple Museum will also be open, of course, on Saturday and throughout the summer to self-guided tours of the New Hampshire MapleExperience. Self-guided maple tours are open June 1-Columbus Day weekend.

The Rocks boasts a diverse trails system meandering the Estate, and visitors are free to explore. Our Mobile Tour of the property provides information about the history and current conservation efforts at The Rocks – just use your smart phone to scan QR Codes at more than a dozen places and you’ll have additional information at your fingertips!

Several workshops and tours are planned for Saturday’s Wildflower Festival to entertain and educate visitors throughout the day, including birding walks through the historic Rocks Estate, a discussion on identifying various wildflowers, and the Floral Edibles workshop, where participants will learn which local native plants are edible – from fiddleheads and rhubarb to wild leeks and Johnnie Jump-Ups – and how to incorporate them into delicious meals at home.

Walks along the Mile Path, which is open only to guided tours, will also be offered during the Festival. The Mile Path meanders through the Estate, where the Glessner family, original owners of The Rocks, collected and planted an array of flowers. Guides will highlight the rich history of the Glessner family, who summered here beginning in the late 1880s, and the natural world they loved so much. The Mile Path walks are limited to 15 people per tour and fill quickly, so reservations are strongly advised. 

The Wildflower Festival runs this Saturday, June 2, from 10 a.m. through 4 p.m. The cost for the day-long Wildflower Festival is $15 and includes lunch and all programs. A $5 discount is given with each lupine festival book presented. For more information or to make reservations, please email us at info@therocks.org or give us a call at (603) 444-6228.

Enjoy the N.H. Maple Experience this summer!

This year’s crop of maple syrup is bottled up and stashed away for the year, but the New Hampshire Maple Experience returns to The Rocks Estate June 1.

Visitors are welcome to take a self-guided maple tour anytime from June 1 through Columbus Day. The Maple Museum will be open for interactive learning (check out our panoramic view of the museum on our website), and the scenery along the path to the museum is unbeatable – the mountains of the Presidential range, carefully restored historic buildings, and summer wildflowers thriving right through until fall foliage season.

While you’re visiting The Rocks, we invite you to explore our extensive trails system (open daily, year ’round, dawn to dusk) and bring along your smart phone to explore our Mobile Tour of QR Codes that detail the estate’s history and modern conservation work. Dogs are welcome, too, but please keep them leashed!

Oh, and if you missed our fabulous chef demos during sugaring season this spring, you’ll find deliciousmaple recipes from area chefs on our website!