New Hampshire’s earliest colonists learned how to collect and boil down the sap of the sugar maple tree to make syrup and sugar from Native Americans.
In 1722, New Hampshire’s lieutenant governor, John Wentworth, sent a small box of maple sugar to a British nobleman. Wentworth wrote that he hoped to “make this a very useful and profitable business. ”
Although maple sugar did not take off in Britain, colonists used it to sweeten their food and as an economic currency, exchanging it with neighbors for other items. Maple syrup was the primary sweetener in the northeastern United States until the 1880s, at which time New Hampshire produced more than 345,000 gallons for sale each year.
Maple sugaring in the late winter has deep roots in the Granite State’s agricultural history, and the annual Maple Weekend held at farms around the state continues to draw both tourists and locals to share in the tradition.
N.H. Historical Society