Vermont typically gets all the love when it comes to maple syrup, but we're lucky to have a long list of amazing maple farms right here in our own back yard! And this time of year, when it's spring but not at all feeling like it, a little road trip and a lotta maple is pretty much the best thing to beat cabin fever. So, if you're up for something sweet, here are a few of our favorite upstate sugar shacks to visit!  

Toad Hill Maple Farm | Athol, NY: The largest of the bunch, the timberframe sugar house at Toad Hill is a beauty. Bonus points for the covered bridge on property, and the wagon ride that takes you over it and through their sugarbush! 
Don't leave without: an enormous bag of maple popcorn, along with the biggest maple leaf bottle of syrup you can buy.

Maple Knoll Farm | Minerva, NY: A most charming sugar house (made with lumber milled from trees on their land!), and the loveliest people. We felt right at home as soon as we walked through the door, and left with a handwritten recipe for maple dip - it doesn't get much better than that!  
Don't leave without: sampling one of their maple donuts, topped with maple dip (grab a jar of maple cream to make your own dip - so good!). 

Rathbun's Maple Sugar House | North Granville, NY: A local favorite, it's hard to believe it was our first time out here! A horse drawn wagon greeted us out front (along with the smell of maple wafting through the air!) and we loved watching them boil sap into syrup from above in the sugar house. 
Don't leave without: devouring their pancake breakfast. The wait was over an hour when we got there, so we'll be back next weekend! 

Mapleland Farms | Salem, NY: Home of an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast, and one of the prettiest views in Washington County. Loved checking out their specialty products - need some maple mustard? They've got you covered ;)   
Don't leave without: a bag full of their maple candy (it melts in your mouth!) and a 'gram of the syrup samples in the window, of course. 

Sugar Mill Farm | Greenwich, NY: A classic red-roofed sugar house just outside one of our favorite Washington County towns. Save room for their pancake breakfast, which folks were lining up for when we arrived!
Don't leave without: a jar of their maple cream. Someone has been eating it by the spoonful. Ahem, Tom.

If you're not local, you can purchase online from most of the farms mentioned above, as well as our pals at Bixby's Best in Bolton Landing!

Upstate friends - would love to know what your favorites are! Happy Spring!