There can be no greater harbinger of a New Brunswick spring than the sight of silver buckets affixed to the majestic sugar maple (Acer saccharum). They bring visions of sticky sweet maple taffy, creamy butter, blocks of sugar, or buttermilk pancakes swimming in pure fragrant syrup.
And there can be nothing to enliven the winter-weary heart more than an excursion to the sugar woods on a sunny, warm spring day. Search out one of these traditional wooden sugar shacks and you’ll find a social springtime gathering place where wood smoke competes with the maple steam, and the ‘one-upping’ stories compete with the sugaring chores.