Turtle Lane Maple Farm

Sorry to everyone that has come to the site so far this year and found terribly outdated content.  We have been busy with life as well as getting ready for the season.  Sometimes it seems we are stretched a bit too thin.  But we are very excited for the upcoming season!

We are in the process of cleaning the sugarhouse, repairing the equipment, and getting ready to run tubing (we are always looking for volunteers).  We expect to run tubing during the last two weeks of February. Most likely in the last week of February we will be tapping the trees in expectation that the beginning of March will kickoff the beginning of the season.  The perfect weather for set flow is daytime temperatures in the 40’s and overnight below freezing.  Although the groundhog says that there is many more weeks of winter we believe that the beginning of spring is right around the corner.

We are hoping for a plentiful season of sap flow, because all indications are that we are sure to have a successful season in terms of visitors. We have already booked 28 groups for tours, not to mention all of the drop-in visitors we are expecting.  Last year we had 1,750 visitors for free tours (a new record), not sure if we will beat that this year.  We’re getting antsy for the season to begin, and look forward to the upcoming weeks in March!

Hello Everyone!!

We have a very unique and exciting opportunity this year that will most-likely never happen again, and we would like to extend you an invitation to join us at this special occasion.

Each year the Mass. Department of Agriculture along with the Mass. Maple Association select a sugar house to host the Maple Month Kick-off. This is a festive event where state and local politicians as well as members of the Association and other invitees come for a ceremonial, old-fashioned tree tapping and the signing of a proclamation by the governor that “March is Mass. Maple Month.”

We are excited to announce that this year our sugar house was selected to host this unique event! We are hopeful that the governor or the lieutenant governor will be attending. Many of North Andover’s selectman and town officers will be there, as well as several state representatives and officials. We have also invited many third grade students to represent the five elementary schools in North Andover.

This should be a relatively big event considering we are the closest fully operating sugar house to Boston. We are about 15 minutes off of 95, 93 and 495, so we are conveniently located from almost everywhere.

There will be a variety of maple related foods and snacks, donated by various businesses (hopefully more to come):

• Butcher Boy Market (maple creme filled cupcakes)
• Mad Maggies (TLMF maple walnut ice cream & waffle cones with vanilla ice cream and drizzled maple syrup)
• The Loft (maple glazed pork loin)
• Eatz Restaurant (pecan waffles & regular waffles)
• Perfecto’s Caffe (maple french toast coffee & regular coffee)
• Mass Maple Association (maple cotton candy)
• Turtle Lane Maple Farm (mini-pancackes & syrup, maple cotton candy, sugar on snow)

As always, the public is welcome to come anytime when we are boiling (posted on our website) for a free tour; to learn, to taste and to have fun.

Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested, we would like to share this with as many people as possible.

Here is a link to the official invitation, we would appreciate if you could RSVP so we can get an approximate headcount for the event and food.

Looking forward to seeing you,

Paul and Kathy
info@turtlelanemaplefarm.com

We attended the Mass Maple Association’s annual meeting in January and are getting so anxious for the start of the 2008 maple season! We are working with all of the elementary schools in North Andover to schedule field trips for each of their fifteen third grade classes. We already have five other tour groups scheduled and have seven other groups we are in the final planning stages with. If you have a group and are interested in scheduling a tour, please send us an email at info@turtlelanemaplefarm.com.

We are also planning for a big event – the Mass Maple/Mass Department of Agriculture Maple Kickoff Event. This event will be held on Friday, March 7 at our sugarhouse from 10:30am until about 12:30pm. We are working with several local businesses like Mad Maggie’s Ice Cream, Butcher Boy Marketplace, Perfecto’s Caffe, Eatz Restaurant, The Loft… to provide maple treats. We will also be making mini pancakes, sugar on snow and other confections on site. We are working with the North Andover elementary schools to arrange to have a variety of 3rd grade students come to represent the school children we provide tours for during each maple season. This event is sure to be festive and informative, and we’re expecting upwards of 200 visitors, including friends and family as well as local and state governmental officials. All are welcome to join us for this special day!