Sugaring Off
Perhaps the sweetest gift of our land comes from our groves of maple trees. Once again, we celebrated the long history of sugaring in Newbury.
Harold Carleton and Cindy Merrill opened their sugar house to us on March 30. For 6 generations, the Carleton family has made maple syrup. Today, their sugarbush stretches up 200 acres on Tucker Mountain, and they have installed a modern vacuum system to collect the sap. Their original sugar bush has only recently recovered from the hurricane of ‘38. At the open house, they provided a guided tour and demonstration of boiling the sap down into luscious syrup and a display of historical photos and memorabilia. There was maple syrup tasting with doughnuts for dunking and jugs of maple syrup, maple cream, and maple sugar available for purchase.
We look forward to continuing this annual event and visiting other sugar houses in Newbury!
Harold Carleton, NHS Board Director, in front of his sugar house.
Fancy is more than a type of syrup. It’s a word for antique sugar molds on display at the Open House. This photo shows a grand sugar “cake” (a type of maple candy) that A.A. Carleton created using sugar cake molds he designed.
Excerpt from the NHS Winter 2025 Newsletter