PBS show 'America the Bountiful' shines the spotlight on Vermont maple

Vermonters are notorious defenders of the state’s maple syrup. They don’t want syrup from New Hampshire or New York or, heaven forbid, some fake high-fructose-corn-syrup concoction. They want liquid gold tapped from trees by their neighbors and friends.

Capri Cafaro, host of the nationwide public-television series “America the Bountiful,” wanted to (ahem) tap into that cultural heritage for her series that visits states around the country to explore their food heritage. The episode about Vermont’s maple syrup debuts Saturday, July 6, on Vermont Public.

“Maple is very unique in how it’s produced, what it can be used for,” Cafaro told the Burlington Free Press in a phone conversation this spring. “Maple seemed to be a rich story where there are a lot of applications for it.”

For the episode on Vermont maple filmed in March 2023, Cafaro visited an Abenaki family holding to traditional tapping styles; the Fairfax-based maple company Runamok; and a Grand Isle bake shop selling maple-infused products via an honor-box system where customers put money in and take what they purchased.

“It restores your faith in humanity that something like that can exist,” Cafaro said.

Pears in Oregon, pheasants in South Dakota

Cafaro, who is of Italian-Ukrainian descent, said the European influences of her native northeastern Ohio have shaped that region’s food culture. That inspired her to pursue similar stories nationwide for “America the Bountiful.”

“My aim is to use food as a guide, as a storyteller to tell America’s cultural story through the lens of food,” Cafaro said. “Food is not only a unifier but is a storyteller about time and place.”

Other episodes of “America the Bountiful” have told the indigenous stories behind Minnesota’s wild-rice culture; how the state fruit of Oregon, the pear, was brought to the Pacific Northwest by settlers from the Midwest; and the context of the pheasant harvest in South Dakota, where residents of Aberdeen during World War II would make thousands of pheasant sandwiches for soldiers traveling through the region.

The richness of the maple story made syrup a natural avenue to tell the Vermont story, according to Cafaro. She said the episode highlights the state’s processes, ingenuity and heritage involving maple.

“Vermont has so much to offer,” according to Cafaro. “Our aim was to try to bring some of those cultural threads together.”

How to watch

Vermont Public and the affiliated station Create will air the Vermont episode of “America the Bountiful” on several dates this month, according to Vermont Public’s website:

• 11 a.m. Saturday, July 6, PBS
• 3 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, PBS
• 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 17, Create
• Midnight Thursday, July 18, Create

Contact Brent Hallenbeck atbhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.