Most of us here in Fairfax don't pay much attention to Vermont Maple Weekend as we have friends and acquaintances who have sugar houses, check with them to see when they will be boiling and take a trip out to see them. Also, we just stop in if we see steam coming from the sugar house. The other thing is, they always are prepared for visitors with the little paper cups that they gladly give you a sample of their syrup. Once you taste it, they look for a comment from you and I do have to say, there is truly nothing like some nice freshly made Vermont Maple Syrup.
Although most sugar makers have modernized their operation, many still use wood which gives the sugar house that kind of old fashioned look when they open it up and throw some more wood on. I haven't spoken to any of our sugarmakers, but this type of weather could start the trees to budding and put a quick end to sugaring.
For more on Vermont Maple Weekend and its participants, click on the link below:
http://vermontmaple.org/open-house-weekend.php (http://vermontmaple.org/open-house-weekend.php)