Sugar on Snow Draws a Crowd in Cabot

The recipe is almost too simple to call a recipe. Boil syrup a little past the point of pouring, drizzle it in ribbons over a pan of clean packed snow, and it seizes into a chewy, taffy-like candy you lift off with a fork. That is sugar on snow, and in Cabot it still draws a happy crowd every spring.

Tradition dictates the accompaniments: a sour dill pickle and a plain raised doughnut, both meant to cut the sweetness so you can eat more of it. Purists take the pairing seriously. Everyone else just takes seconds.

Part potluck, part fundraiser, these gatherings mark the end of the sugaring season and the true beginning of spring. Kids race between the snowbanks with syrup on their chins; the older folks trade notes on how the run went this year. It is a small, sticky celebration of having made it through another Vermont winter — and of the trees that, once again, delivered.