VERMONT

More than 100 sugar shacks will host open houses March 23-25. For details, including events planned, go to http://www.vermontmaple.org/. (Click Consumers, then Maple Events.) The site also details which shacks use buckets and horses to collect the sap and wood fires to boil it, and which use more modern techniques, such as tubes and tractors. Some of the state's notable sugar shacks:

· Sweet Whisper Farms in Bennington County (Route 100, Readsboro, 800-660-9077) claims to be Vermont's only horse-powered, organic, kosher maple farm. The sugar house is built to resemble an 18th-century Eastern European wooden synagogue.

· Dakin Farm (Route 7, Ferrisburgh, 802-425-3971) will have live music and an intriguing entree -- "sausage hoagies dipped in sap" -- in addition to an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast and syrup on ice cream.

· Help gather the buckets with a team of horses at H.J. Howrigan & Sons (551 Howrigan Rd., Fairfield, 802-827-4479).

· Snowshoe or cross-country ski on groomed trails within sugarbush (otherwise known as a maple grove) at Southview Maple (895 Upper Quarry Rd., Newport).

WHERE TO STAY: Some Vermont sugarmakers not only have dairy farms or some other secondary source of income, but also offer accommodations. Among them:

· Couture's Maple Shop (Route 100, Westfield, in Orleans County, 802-744-2733, http://www.maplesyrupvermont.com/) has rooms in a farmhouse built in 1892, located yards from the sugar shack and dairy barns, 15 minutes from skiing at Jay Peak and 1 1/2 hours from Burlington. Doubles are $90 per night, breakfast included.

· Maple Crest Farm (2512 Lincoln Hill Rd., Shrewsbury Center, in Rutland County, 802-492-3367, http://www.smithmaplecrestfarm.com/), a 320-acre farm, has 27 rooms in a Federal-style house. Doubles from $60-$100 a night, including breakfast and afternoon tea.

· Kedron Sugar Makers (6102 Kendall Rd., South Woodstock, 802-457-3015, http://www.kedron.com/) is a combination riding stable/horse-training/sugar-shacking B&B, where double rooms, with breakfast, are $85-$95 a night.

· Top Acres Farm (3615 Fletcher Hill Rd., South Woodstock, 802-457-2386) has available for rent a three-bedroom apartment, starting at $125, or a room for $85, and cross-country skiing.

· If you really want to rough it, Merck Forest and Farmland Center (Rupert Mountain Rd., Rupert, 802-394-7836, http://www.merckforest.com/) has cabins with outhouses and wood-burning stoves a short hike from the property's sugar shack. Cabins for six to 11 people range in price from $45 to $80.

FESTIVALS: Sugarmakers from across Vermont congregate in St. Albans the last weekend of every April to celebrate the completion of the harvest with a festival that includes fiddlers and other music, dancing, a crafts show and youth talent competitions. This year it's April 27-29. Details: 802-524-5800, http://www.vtmaplefestival.org/.

MUSEUM: The New England Maple Museum (Route 7, Pittsford, near Rutland, 802-483-9414, http://www.maplemuseum.com/) features Native American sugarmaking artifacts. -- C.L.