NEW HAVEN — For those with a sweet tooth, the sugarhouse at Addison County Fair and Field Days is an irresistible attraction.
A warm, maple aroma fills the building, where customers decide between maple candies, donuts, creemees, cotton candy, maple coffee and maple popsicles.
At the helm of this bustling attraction this year is 19-year-old Andrew Rainville of Lincoln. After working here for the past seven or eight summers, he said, his aunt Barbara passed off the leadership position to him this year.
“I’ve been here every year since I was old enough to make a milkshake,” Rainville said with a laugh.
His experience with the maple industry also includes visiting his family’s sugarhouse as a child, an experience that he said heightened his interest in the longstanding Vermont tradition.
“It’s a lot more work than the five days that everyone sees,” said Rainville of his new leadership role at Field Days, adding, “It’s a lot of fun and allows you to meet a lot of great people.”
In addition to providing delicious sweets, Rainville noted that the maple sugar house on the New Haven fairgrounds also serves to educate visitors about the importance of maple sugaring to life in Addison County.
“Sugaring is ingrained in the culture of the county and state,” Rainville said. “We take a lot of pride in it. It’s part of who we are, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”