Home Sweet Home

It is said that our memories are strongly tied to our sense of smell.  This time of year in New England, as the cold weather seems unrelenting, I always am reminded of the intense and sweet billowing steam from inside my father’s maple sugar house, and I know that soon the warm, but not-too-warm, weather will be on its way.  Nestled on a beautifully preserved 450-acre plot in Lempster, NH is the Stetson equine and maple farm.  The farm is on a hill, which is perfectly suited by nature for optimal sunning of an extensive tree canopy.  Through selective cutting and decades of pruning and cleaning, my father has allowed the natural advantages of the land to reach it’s fullest potential for the proliferation of sugar maple trees.  This, in addition to a fastidious attention to detail and a custom-built innovative operation with a particular focus on eliminating impurities has lead Stetson’s maple to develop maple derivatives that people with discerning palates have identified as the best that the industry has to offer.   When I was young, the sugar house didn’t look like it does today.  There was a small shed (now the back portion).  The trees are connected by a series of tubing that connects the trees to the large gathering tanks much like capillaries, veins, and arteries in the body.  And although the principle of removing water from 40 gallons of maple sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup remains the same, the process used when I was a child was much different than it is today.The evaporator was wood-powered.  Now a giant steam generator runs the evaporator and steam pans, which zaps the remaining excess water from the sap after it has been run through the reverse osmosis shown here:From the r.o. machine, evaporator, and steam pan, the syrup is then run through a filter press and stored in drums before being canned.  The front portion of the sugar house is devoted to maple cream and candy production, which is a material science that my father has refined through countless hours of trial and error.  You will not find a maple candy that comes close in comparison.   If this has you craving for a taste of this magical place, don’t worry, there’s plenty for you- go ahead and call… pricelist