Liquid Gold: Maple Syrup

Photos by Michael Piazza / Styled by Catrine Kelty

When we relocated from Greater Boston to Maine our dream was to have a little farm and live off the garden for most of the year. We love eating what’s in season and what we grow.

Imagine our surprise when we realized we had a stand of sugar maples on the property to tap. Growing up in Québec, where maple syrup is a big part of the culture, I was sold.

Come mid-February, around the Portland area you will see buckets and lines running from tree to tree in the majority of people’s properties. It’s a “thing”: We all talk about it and compare notes. Some make it a neighborhood gathering where you sit around the evaporator or your personal boiling contraption and share a bite and a drink or two. It takes time and patience: The ratio is 40 to 1! Once we have 2 gallons of syrup, we stop (that’s 80 gallons of sap).

The spiles are taken out of the trees by the end of March, and then Maple Weekend is in full swing when you can visit commercial sugar shacks, have breakfast and get yourself some local syrup. Maple syrup goes far beyond pancakes and French toast, as you will see in the following recipes, and can be used throughout the year in many different ways, especially in spring.

There is a funny saying in Maine that we have five seasons: winter, mud season, spring, summer and fall. I would like to add a sixth one, one that prepares us for that pesky mud season: maple season.

This story appeared in the Spring 2026 issue.