Why do maple syrup bottles have those tiny handles? Once upon a time, syrup came in large jugs not unlike the kind you see in old cartoons with three x's written across them to signify some sort ...

She and her husband Jeff are a team. They have been hard at work collecting and boiling down sap into maple syrup in their Mason, N.H., backyard sugar house they call Babel’s Sugar Shack.

Bendix Woods, LaGrange County and local farmers will put on tasty maple syrup fests and tours with lots of tasting and kids activities.