A History of Maple Syrup in New England with Recipes

Discover the greatest trips, the ultimate events, the most delicious food and recipes, remarkable New England gardens and homes, and the spell-binding stories that make New England special, in the latest edition of Yankee magazine.

Maple syrup. If there’s one thing everyone in New England can agree on, it’s that a sugarhouse in the depths of maple syrup production is one of the best places in the world. We aren’t shy about it either. We celebrate March Madness by sampling maple syrup, maple candy, maple vinaigrette, maple soda, maple whiskey… you get the point. Naturally, all that maple deserves a few parties, and we’ve got ‘em. You can find New England maple celebrations at 80-plus locations across Maine, over 100 open houses around New Hampshire, and more than 130 sugarhouses in Vermont. You can learn how 19th-century New Englanders made maple syrup. Discover a hidden, old-school pancake house that serves maple baked beans and waffles with house-made maple syrup. And you can taste award-winning syrups throughout the region. Of course, the real magic begins at the tree. In the latest issue of Yankee magazine, we’ll introduce you to a sugarbush of hundreds of acres of maple trees, from spindly teenagers reaching for the sun to 200-year-old wide-bottomed elders. You’ll also meet the family that’s worked this land since 1812, and find out what happens behind the scenes before that liquid gold ends up on your plate. We’ll visit with a sugar maker who left the corporate world behind and now spends her days monitoring 9,000 taps and boiling sap in a sugarhouse. “I love it when I know I’m going to work outside and spend a day in the sugarbush. The smells, what I’m seeing, working the land – it’s hard not to appreciate what I’m doing.” There’s lots to love about maple season. And plenty of ways to celebrate nature’s sweet nectar. You can get all the Grade A details in 8 Ways to Make the Most of Maple Season.

Ready to plan your maple adventure? Discover the best destinations right now with your Yankee All-Access Charter Membership!

Exploring sugarhouses and sampling maple syrup is a dream, but sometimes you just want to enjoy a relaxing meal at home. Now you can do both. The March/April issue of Yankee includes time-tested, tried-and-true recipes starring maple syrup. From pecan pie-style chewy maple bars to addictive maple-glazed ribs to crisp-tender waffles, these recipes are bound to become part of your maple repertoire. The waffle recipe especially stands out when you use a few tricks. For instance, adding cornstarch to the batter ensures a crispier texture, while beating your egg whites separately, then folding them into the batter, produces the fluffiest of waffles. We also included a reader favorite: Maple barbecue ribs. A long, slow roast allows the ribs to melt into tenderness, while a final brush with a maple-sweetened sauce brings them to lacquered perfection. Get the complete recipes with your Yankee All-Access Charter Membership, which gives you instant access to the entire library of Yankee magazines. Whether you need a delicious recipe, tips on the best New England antiquing, or the perfect weekend retreat, Yankee magazine is here for you. It’s true we adore our maple here in the northeast, but there’s more to New England than what’s on land. Just off the shores of Cape Cod, Greg Skomal spends his days leaning over the bow of his research boat looking for Great White sharks. His average day includes racing up and down the Outer Cape trying to catch video of a shark or attach a tracking tag to it. In 2009, he was the first researcher to tag a white shark in the North Atlantic. But with a growing number of shark sightings (more than 50 last year at just a few outer beaches alone), Skomal’s work has turned from traditional shark population research toward public safety. Last summer, he experimented with a tracking device that can document multiple body movements every second, indicating when a fish is resting, when it’s feeding, and when it’s hunting for prey. That kind of tech may point the way toward how people and sharks can better coexist. “Ultimately our goal is to find patterns with these animals – then we can forecast where a white shark is likely to be hunting on any given day or hour.” Spend a day with Greg and his crew exploring beneath the waters of Cape Cod, and find out what it’s like to track one of the most feared and revered creatures in the ocean. With your Yankee All-Access Charter Membership!, you can read the March/April issue of Yankee right now.

Our March/April issue of Yankee, which is FREE with your Yankee All-Access Charter Membership!, is ready for you.

Discover the best that New England has to offer in the latest edition of Yankee. With your Yankee All-Access Charter Membership, you have full access to everything in this issue, including:

• Up Close, where you can step back to Malden, Massachusetts in 1908 and follow the story of the original king of athletic sneakers
• A trip to the Public Gardens lagoon for the real beginning of spring in Boston, in Back in the Paddle
• New England’s greatest race, flower festivals, and more peak-spring events that are worth the drive, in Out & About
• The story of a young asylum seeker in Maine and the teacher who helped him win a national poetry recitation, in The Unfinished Journey of Joao Victor

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