Range View Farm is a 65-acre farm situated on Vittum Hill, just south of the White Mountain National Forest, not far from Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. At Range View, we make maple syrup and grow vegetables. We manage and protect a grove of sugar maples. We write fiction and non-fiction about the northern New England forest. And we study how sugar maples respond to climate change.

Martha's Blog April 18, 2010

Submitted by Martha Carlson on Sun, 04/18/2010 - 12:54

Yesterday, about three inches of snow covered Vittum Hill Road and the emerging sugar maple leaves. Luckily the temperature was just at freezing. The little leaves survived. But it was quite an odd sight.

I visited Loudon sugar producers to pick up more sap samples. Marty and Anne Boisvert gave me a sample of the nitre they scraped off the sap pan at the end of the season. Usually it is a cinnamon brown. This year, the nitre was black as tar with flecks of clear crystals in it: another chemical mystery for the UNH team.

Martha's Blog April 7, 2010

Submitted by Martha Carlson on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 07:19

Another sunny day with temperatures forecast as high as 80. I picked up sap samples from Jackie Hunter Rollins on Monday. The Hunters also had a poor year, only making half their usual harvest. Their last real run was also on March 12. Jackie and I stood in the saphouse yard shaking our heads. "Can you believe it," Jackie said. "This is April 5. No snow. Now sap."
In years past, all of us would have been standing in snow and making syrup.

Martha's Blog March 21, 2010

Submitted by Martha Carlson on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 22:35
Posted in

March 21, 2010

Finally cooling off after several days with hot strange weather, clear and beautiful but record-breaking with heat. The air was so dry, the sun had a searing glare to it. We wore hats and dark glasses and took a hike to Center Sandwich yesterday, 70 degrees.
Sap cannot run in this weather. Rudy emptied every tank and bucket on Thursday again. We'll wait a few days and see if the temperature drops enough for a second run. Weatherman predicts snow on Tuesday so perhaps it will get cool enough. But perhaps it won't.

March 13, 2010

Maple Watch

What Is Maple Watch?

 Maple Watch will be presented on March 22 at the NH Science Teachers' Association conference in Manchester.

Maple Watch is a scientific and citizen study of sugar maples, Acer saccharum.  The sugar maple is an iconic tree in New England, the northern Great Lakes states and all along the northern Appalachian Mountains. 

Climate change, rising temperatures and erratic weather patterns are projected to kill almost all sugar maples in the United States by 2100. Maple Watch aims to monitor the maple's response to climate change and, if possible, help conserve our sugar maples.

Farm and Garden

Farm and Garden
 Range View Farm is now making maple syrup. And we've ordered FEDCO seeds for the gardens. Range View produces maple syrup, jams and jellies, and fresh vegetables.  We also sell wild cranberries, summer apples, Christmas trees, and wreaths, including partridge berry wreaths.  Our products vary by the season.  Syrup, jams and wreaths can be mail ordered.  Go to our Range View Farm Mail Order page to see prices and to place an order.

Sagas Overview

Submitted by Martha Carlson on Wed, 12/30/2009 - 20:19

Vikings in New Hampshire?  Yes, and on the Chesapeake too, a thousand years ago, Range View Farm author Martha Carlson imagines in Sagas of A Vinland Timber Scout. Carlson's historical fiction chronicles the travels of a Vinland scout who sails south from Leif Erikson's camp in Newfoundland along the Atlantic seaboard. 

Sven, the timber scout, meets native peoples on the coast of what is now Maine and joins them for the winter in the White Mountains.With Grey Wing, a translator, and her uncle Saco, a scientist and tribal leader, the Viking travels as far as the Chesapeake Bay and the headwaters of the Potomac River.

Martha's Blog Maple Season Starting

Submitted by Martha Carlson on Mon, 12/28/2009 - 14:52

February 15, 2010

Wow! A month has gone by. Sap is running. It started running Sunday, February 13, at exactly 12:26 p.m. I decided to hang a few buckets on the North pasture trees just to see. It was 37 degrees F. Poing Poing. Clear liquid sap dripped into the bucket. Today Rudy and I tapped more trees. We're about half finished. This is the earliest we have ever tapped. Maybe we're too eager. But the trees will reprimand us if we are by sealing off their tap holes. If it is an early year, it will be too hot for sugaring by the end of March. We'll have caught the wave.

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