MONKTON — Maple is a powerful component to Vermont identity, and the Monkton Museum and Historical Society next week will host a presentation that explores this topic.
Champlain College Professor Michael Lange will give a talk titled “The Many Meanings of Maple” on Monday, Aug. 15, at 7 p.m. at the Monkton Fire Station. In the presentation, Lange will examine the many meanings of maple sugaring. 
Maple is enormously important to Vermont’s economy, ecology and heritage, and the presentation will cover sugaring based on over five years of research among sugarmakers all around the state to learn from them what sugaring really means to Vermont. 
Rather than the practical aspects of sugaring, such as how to tap a tree or how an evaporator works, Lange’s talk will focus on how and why maple has become so important to Vermont’s identity, and how and why it helps us shape who we are as Vermonters.
Lange is a professor of anthropology and folklore and has written several academic works about cultural identity. His recent work draws on research with sugarmakers from across Vermont and includes “Foodie Influence on the Culinary Meanings of Maple Syrup” and “Sweet Bedfellows: Continuity, Change and Terroir in Maple Syrup.” His most recent book, “Meanings of Maple,” will hit the shelves next year.
The event, sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, is free and open to the public. The event will also be accessible to people with disabilities. Maple refreshments will follow the presentation. The Monkton Fire Station can be found at 3747 State’s Prison Hollow Road.
For more information, call Gill Coates at 802-482-2277 or email: [email protected].