BANGOR, Maine — Nearly 100 sugarhouses from around the state opened their doors for this year’s Maine Maple Sunday, and many welcomed the public on Saturday as well.
There was plenty for maple lovers to choose from, ranging from tours and tastings to music and more.
An interactive map put together by the Maine Maple Producers Association listed 85 locations that were open to families in search of sweet treats or who wanted to see firsthand how maple syrup and related products are made.
Members of the Southern Maine Maple Sugarmakers Association also had events celebrating running sap.
“With Maple Sunday, you can go anywhere from the Merrifield Farm [in Gorham], where they’re going to [draw] 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 people in a weekend and the cars are parked all the way up the street,” John Bott, spokesman for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, said Saturday.
“Or you could go to somebody who’s open just down the road in somebody’s garage, where they have a homemade evaporator and some chairs out there,” he said. “It’s interesting. There’s a wide variety of [maple producing] operations that are doing it.
“The biggest determinant is the weather because people get cabin fever. I think people really want spring [to arrive] this year because there’s still a lot of snow around. I know for a lot of people, it’s just a good family day to get out if the sap is running,” he said.
Sunday’s sunny weather brought maple fans out in droves.
“We saw a record crowd,” said Lyle Merrifield of Merrifield Farm. He estimated that 3,000 people visited his operation Saturday and another 5,000 dropped by on Sunday.
While there, visitors could go on self-guided barn tours, visit the sugar bush and an 1800s ice house, and check out an old cast-iron cauldron sap boiling setup and modern evaporating equipment. There also was a working blacksmith, ox cart rides, music and a play area for kids.
And plenty of maple was on hand — syrup for drizzling onto pancakes, maple cotton candy, maple soft-serve ice cream and maple cream, said Merrifield, who is president of the Maine Maple Producers Association. His farm produces between 160 and 180 gallons of syrup annually, he said.
Merrill said that Maine Maple Sunday has grown dramatically during its 34 years in part because it always takes place on the fourth Sunday in March and people have come to look forward to it.
Meanwhile, Bart Bradbury of Bradbury Maple Farms in the Aroostook County town of Bridgewater hosted well more than 500 visitors over the weekend. The farm will be open to the public the first three weekends in April.
“We had a great day today,” Bradbury said Sunday. While the sap wasn’t flowing much that day, he said enough sap had been stored that he was able to treat visitors to maple taffy drizzled on snow, where it could be twirled onto popsicle sticks and eaten.
In addition to maple sugar, candy, cotton candy and cream this year was maple popcorn, which was a big hit.
Bott said Saturday that the 2017 sugaring season appears to be off to a decent start.
“As you know, for maple, you take what Mother Nature gives you. It’s always dependent on the weather,” he said. “I guess we’ve had an interesting season so far from what I gather from talking to producers from around the state.
“There was a lot of people who produced a lot of syrup early in February when we had some unseasonably warm conditions,” Bott said.
“Depending on where you are in the state, it’s been unseasonably cold in the last week or so, so it kind of put a stop to the season, but it looks like it’s beginning to flow again going into Maple Sunday, and the weather looks really good for maple production next week,” he said.
“It should be a really good day and I’m planning on going out and checking my own trees shortly,” said Bott, who makes maple syrup as a hobby. He said it takes roughly 35 to 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup, so he doesn’t make enough to sell.
“To me, it’s really exciting to see the connection between the seasons and the weather and nature. It’s quite remarkable that you can get sugar from a tree,” he said.
“Last year was a very long season, but overall there were some prime producers that said the sugar content was lower than usual, but we’re hearing this year in some cases that the sugar content is higher.”
In terms of production, Maine goes back and forth with New York for No. 2 in the country, with Vermont being the top maple-making state.
Somerset County is the No. 1 producer in the nation in terms of county rankings.
Since 2010, Maine maple syrup production has more than doubled, increasing 114 percent, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Last year’s extended maple season yielded 675,000 gallons, up from 315,000 gallons in 2010. During that same time period, the number of taps has increased 26.5 percent, growing from 1.47 million to 1.86 million.
Maine’s maple industry is not only growing in output and importance, but also becoming more diverse, Bott said.
“It’s really a remarkable growth, and it provides jobs and it provide opportunities. People are talking about other products, like maple water, and cask-aged maple. There’s somebody doing maple beer,” he said.
Lone Pine Brewer and the Maine Maple Producers Association released Maine Maple Sundae, a maple brown ale, during a beer and food tasting event at Little Tap House in Portland on Maple Sunday.
“I have a bottle of syrup that has habanero in it, too,” Bott said.
For more information about Maine’s maple industry, visit the Maine Maple Producers Association’s website at http://mainemapleproducers.com.