NH Maple Experience returns in March!

The New Hampshire Maple Experience will return to The Rocks Estate this spring, bringing with it all the tradition, sweetness, and fun of maple sugaring season! Dates for this year's Maple Experience are March 16, 23-24, 30- 31, and April 6.

The Experience includes an interactive step-by-step demonstration of crafting maple syrup – complete with a visit to the onsite sugar house – as well as a horse-drawn carriage ride through the historic Rocks Estate and a syrup tasting with the traditional pairing of sour pickle and homemade donut.

“Parents looking for kid-friendly events often bring their children to the Maple Experience, and inevitably the whole family ends up learning a lot about maple sugaring – and everyone has a great time,” said Nigel Manley, longtime Rocks Estate manager. “We keep the Maple Experience fresh by adding new features each season.”

Other highlights of the Maple Experience include a visit to the interactive maple museum and education center; the "Taste of New Hampshire Maple," featuring local chefs demonstrating how to make their favorite maple recipes; a relay race where participants are timed on how long it takes to fill a 10-gallon container (enough sugar maple sap to make one quart of syrup); and tasty treats from Kingdom Kernels Kettle Corn.

Reservations for the Maple Experience tours are highly recommended, but walk-ins are welcome on a space available basis. For more details, please visit our online calendar. To learn how to turn your Maple Experience into a weekend-long adventure, complete with a stay at one of our partnering inns or hotels, check out our Maple Experience Vacation Package.

See you this spring at The Rocks!

Coming soon... more Maple Experience!

Heading out for a wagon ride through The Rocks Estate.

As the days grow longer toward mid-winter, our thoughts at The Rocks Estate turn from Christmas trees to maple syrup and a new season of the New Hampshire Maple Experience.

Maple Experience visitors learn firsthand about the age old tradition of creating maple syrup and sugar from the sugar maple trees abundant in our region. Our staff and volunteers at The Rocks lead visitors on a journey through the history of sugaring – dating back to the Native Americans and earliest European settlers here – right through to the modern process, with a trip to our sugar house, a horse-drawn wagon ride through our historic property, and a tasting of the maple syrup produced from the sap of sugar maples growing on The Rocks Estate.

To make the Maple Experience extra sweet, we’re adding a few new features to the program this year. The first is the option to enjoy sugar-on-snow, where we’ll heat syrup and drizzle it over snow to create a delicious toffee-like concoction that’s sure to satisfy the sweetest sweet tooth!

... and sour!

Syrup and pickles - sweet...

We’ve also invited some of the best local chefs to join the Maple Experience this year, and they’ll demonstrate their cooking styles as they create mouthwatering goodies to share – using maple syrup and sugar, of course!

One of our favorite parts of the Maple Experience is the maple syrup tasting visitors enjoy. We always recommend pairing the syrup with fresh donuts and sour pickles for a wonderful combination of sweet and sour. This year, we invite visitors to post their favorite “sour pickle face” photos to our Facebook page.

The Maple Experience will be held at The Rocks Estate March 17, 24-25, 31-April 1, and April 7. 

For more about the Maple Experience, please read our full article.