News & Events
* UPCOMING *
Maple Sugaring Day
Saturday, February 28, 11am-3pm at MassAudubon's Boston Nature Center.
This family-friendly event is ideal for anyone wanting to learn how to tap locally, and also perfect if you simply want to get outside and stand in the sweet steam of boiling maple sap. Plenty of indoor kiddie activities, too. Come with questions. For more info and registration, click HERE.
Spring's coming!
Despite our wonderfully 'normal' winter, 2025 was the 2nd or 3rd warmest on record. Average global temperatures are flirting with or have surpassed 1.5° C (2.7° F) above pre-industrial levels. How do we stop the burn?
For other workshops and happenings, check the Workshops calendar here.
Agricultural Hall?
In 1818, the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture built the original Agricultural Hall on Dighton Street in Brighton. It served as the hub of the Brighton Fair and Cattle Show, one of the earliest and largest such fairs in the country. In 1829, "a 17-pound turnip, a 19-pound radish, and a bough on which pears hung like a cluster of grapes were among the outstanding exhibits of that year." In 1844 the building was moved to its present location at the corner of Chestnut Hill Avenue and Washington Street.
Dr. William P. Marchione &
The Bostonian Society
Agricultural Hall
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Maple Sugaring 2026
After long New England winters, 'sugaring' offers a magical transition to spring. Tapping trees and boiling sap into warm sweet maple syrup begins in early February (earlier than up north). One tree will produce anywhere from a mere two gallons to as many as 30 gallons of sap, but it takes about 30 gallons of syrup to boil down to one gallon of syrup!
So let's build a fully equipped sugar shack in JP! There are hundreds of sugar maple trees in town; a town-wide harvest could generate dozens of gallons of syrup. Interested? Please call Bill at 617-388-7378. Plan now, pancakes later.
SUGARING IN MATTAPAN, 2026:
The Boston Nature Center demonstrated sugaring each spring using Agricultural Hall's small, portable evaporator. Check their web site for details about the upcoming 2026 sugaring festival; https://www.massaudubon.org/programs/boston-nature-center/
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