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Review
“The cycle of the maple season is one of the great signifiers of the mountain year in the northeast. It is lovingly delineated here, with a foreshadowing of the shifts ahead in a changing world. May it move us to action!”—Bill McKibben, author of Oil and Honey
“Whynott has delivered the most complete and compelling account to date of the modern maple industry. His cast of vividly drawn characters and his descriptions of the challenges they overcome will make you feel like you’re right there beside them in the North Country’s sugarbushes. It’s one sweet read.”—Barry Estabrook, author of Tomatoland
“Once again, Douglas Whynott demonstrates his uncanny ability to open up what seems to be ordinary and reveal it as something much more than we ever could have imagined. In this case, it’s the maple syrup industry, and Whynott take us from the metal bucket hanging on a tree into a world of currency bets, Global Strategic Reserves, climate change, and international trade. It’s quite a story, and quite a book.”—Daniel Okrent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
Kirkus Reviews, 1/15/2014
“Thorough research provides fascinating insight into the sweet business of maple syrup.”
Library Journal, 3/1/2014
“Whynott examines both the complicated past of the maple syrup industry and questions about its future…In a world where one barrel of syrup is worth more than a barrel of oil, Whynott’s descriptions of black market dealings and syrup heists highlight the value of this sweet crop…Balancing the global history of the maple syrup trade with its local impact, The Sugar Season immerses readers in a reading experience both historical and personal in nature.”
Publishers Weekly, 2/21/2014
“This inside look at the ups and downs of the maple syrup industry over its year-long harvesting and production cycle will be fascinating to anyone interested in the modern food industry, the effect of global warming on agriculture, and just how that sweet syrup got from a stand of sugar maples to the breakfast table…Enlightening and alarming.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 3/9/14
“Tells the story of the annual sap run, when the cycle of warming daytime temperatures and nighttime freezes triggers the movement of sap in the sugar maples. Despite growth and technological advances, it remains such an elemental story—of trees and their biology, of children working alongside grandparents, of steam and sparks in the sugar house in the overnight boiling down of the sap…Lyrical history, geography and insights into family life centered around a demanding business.”
Boston Globe, 3/5/14
“A wide-ranging look inside the maple syrup business…Whynott skillfully explains how maple syrup gets made, how vitally important weather is, and how global warming may threaten the industry’s future…Whynott’s engaging book offers a skillful and fascinating peek behind the curtain of one of the region’s oldest and most beloved traditional industries.”
Boston Globe, 3/10/14
“Whynott offers scores of statistics while keeping his narrative focused squarely on the people who labor in the sugarhouses that dot the New England Landscape.”
New York Post, 3/2/14
“While focusing on New Hampshire’s Bascom family, who’ve been producing maple syrup since 1853, Whynott details a multimillion-dollar industry with its own hall of fame, a black market and an OPEC-like organization. And if you’ve ever wondered how reverse osmosis figures in maple syrup, you’ll find out here.”
Taste for Life, March 2014
“Offers a glimpse into one of the oldest agricultural crafts in the US and the challenges it faces.”
PopMatters.com, 3/4/14
“What began as a curious search to uncover the mechanics and marketing of maple syrup turns, in his calm telling, into a case study of how venerable family enterprises deal with an uncertain future…Parts of this tale recall John McPhee’s fact-laden reports about our earth and those who seek to comprehend its hidden components.”
Winnipeg Free Press, 3/1/14
“There are many flavours in this affectionate look at the maple-syrup industry in the United States, along with a light taste of the Canadian flow…The Sugar Season includes nostalgia, family histories, business competition, technological development, the free-market approach of the U.S. (compared to the marketing-board approach of Quebec) and, as a disturbing subtext, environmental concern…The Sugar Season does a good job of taking us from the days of tin buckets and wooden spouts to vacuum pumps and tubing, also providing readers with a look to the future…[Whynott] makes you pause and appreciate a nibble on a maple leaf sugar candy.”
Saveur, 3/6/14
“A closely observed portrait of a largely unknown world—one that is full of interesting characters who have devoted their lives to transforming an intensely seasonal crop into a global commodity…it’s a smart, engrossing read that gives this sweet crop—one of America’s oldest agricultural products—its full due.”
Shelf Awareness for Readers, 3/14/14
“Whynott delves into the industry’s particulars, shining light on its history, science and politics. Whynott’s love for his subject is clear; his writing grows lyrical when he rhapsodizes about winter walks in the woods or the taste of pure maple syrup fresh off the boil… A fascinating glimpse into an ancient process that feeds a thoroughly modern industry.”
Roanoke Times, 3/9/14
“Pass me the doughboys and a bottle of Grade A Light Amber, please.”
Hudson Valley News, 3/5/14
“Delightful…This fascinating book tells us what we need to know about an undertaking that is steeped in tradition and is now embracing new technologies that can ensure its continuing existence. It’s a sweet read.”
Manchester Union-Leader, 3/8/14
“Tells the story of the 2012 sugar season as well as Bascom’s rise to being the largest maple syrup producer in the Granite State.”
InfoDad, 3/13/14
“An enthralling exploration of the maple-syrup industry and the people who keep this very old occupation (by American standards) going in the 21st century…Intriguing and engaging.”
About the Author
Douglas Whynott is the critically acclaimed author of four nonfiction books. He has written articles and essays for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Discover, Smithsonian, Outside, Islands, Reader’s Digest, Yankee, and other publications. In True Stories, a history of literary journalism by Norman Sims published in 2008, Whynott is described as “an accomplished master of the literary journalism of everyday life.”
His book about migratory commercial beekeepers, Following the Bloom, was published in 1991 by Stackpole Books, in 1992 by Beacon Press in the Concord Library Series, and in 2004 in a Penguin/Tarcher edition with a new preface and epilogue. It was optioned for development as a feature film. Giant Bluefin, his book about the New England bluefin tuna fishery, was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in hardcover in 1995 and North Point Press in paperback in 1996. It was a highly recommended selection in the New York Review of Books Reader’s Catalog and was reviewed widely, including a feature on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time, a book about a boatyard in Maine owned by the son of E. B. White, was an independent bookstore bestseller, and was read in its entirety on an NPR books program at the affiliate in Ames, Iowa. It was published by Doubleday in 1999, by Washington Square Press in 2000. Australian rights were purchased by Hodder Headline. A Country Practice, his book about a veterinary clinic and a woman just out of vet school, was published by North Point Press in 2004. It was optioned for development as a television series by Creative Convergence, and selected as one of the best 10 nonfiction books of 2004 by New Hampshire Public Radio.
Whynott has taught writing and literature at the University of Massachusetts, Mount Holyoke College, and Columbia University. He is currently an associate professor of writing in the Writing, Literature and Publishing Program at Emerson College, where he served as director of the MFA program from 2002-2009. He received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach at the University of the Andes, Bogota, Colombia in the spring of 2013. In addition to his writing and teaching, he has been at different times a concert piano tuner, a dolphin trainer, a commercial fisherman, and a boogie-woogie pianist. Whynott is an eleventh generation Cape Codder. He lives in Langdon, a small town in southwestern New Hampshire.
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