Sugaring Moon

During the month of March the sugarhouse has often been a home of celebration as it marks spring time’s sweet gatherings and the first agricultural harvest of the season: maple syrup. The warmth of the evaporator, the sharing of food at communal tables, and the overall sentiment of coming together in celebration of seasonal spirit feels familiar and welcoming. It transcends the simple shack to boil sap and becomes something more of community, sense of place and home. This printed image highlights how the sugarhouse and the sugaring season on the farm bring together what home means to me, living here in Western Massachusetts. My goats and horse are companions, and the land we share – the trees, barn, field, forest – is all our communal home. I have spent so much time in different sugarhouses over the last few years, meeting different sugarmakers and seeing these temporary homes they create for themselves during the sugaring season. Sometimes there are pictures and memorabilia, odds and ends, and equipment. They invite people over while they boil, have dinner in the sap house, talk and laugh. It’s like gathering around a big table for dinner. So many sugarhouses in Western Massachusetts have become that sense of home for so many people during this season, and my print of the sugarhouse, along with my animals, embodies this spirits of togetherness and celebration – what home means to me.