On Saturday morning, the Bantam Grill in Peterborough hosted the annual Monadnock Ledger-Transcript Maple Syrup Contest.

Created and launched in 1980 by Ted Leach, then-owner/publisher of the Monadnock Ledger, the contest celebrates the tradition of collecting and boiling down maple sap into syrup, which Native Americans had done long before passing this knowledge to European settlers.

Judges described this year’s entries as the finest group ever, and especially noteworthy for the tough conditions producers faced. Judge Roger Swain said, “Climate is changing; this was a rough year. It started, stopped, started and then went so long that I had to stop boiling to prune the fruit trees. These were all prize-winning quality syrups this year. Excellent.”

Judge Kin Schilling said it was the toughest judging in her 13 years with the contest. Judge Ben Watson agreed, saying this year’s entries made up the strongest field in his many years of judging the contest. 

After round one, tasting and scoring all 11 entries, the judges thinned the field to the top six before determining the top finishers.

While the judges tasted and tallied, members of the public also sipped samples at the People’s Choice table. 

For the second year in a row, the judges’ top pick was the same syrup awarded the People’s Choice honor. Top honors went to Mark Fernald of Sharon and Spring Hill Sugarhouse. Fernald also lifted the trophy in 2023 and 2024, as well as 2019. Chadwick Farm’s Kelly and Chris Marcotte of Jaffrey won second place for judging.

Asked about the secret to his sweet success, Fernald said, “I’m not sure. I am very fussy about getting just the right density, and about filtering, which for me is the most time-consuming part of the process.”

Fernald started sugaring as an adult. He’d have started much sooner if his father had not put the kibosh on the young boy’s idea.

“He was afraid I would steam the wallpaper off the wall, and he shut me down,” Fernald said.

But once he got his own place, Fernald tapped a few trees and simmered sap on his wood stove. In 2007 he built a sugarhouse and bought a proper evaporator. This year, he hung 105 buckets, and had 40 taps on tubing. He ended up with just under 21 gallons of syrup.