As the state’s 39th Maine Maple Sunday event approaches, producers in the Pine Tree State say relaxed pandemic-related restrictions should bring out crowds for local sugarers.
“My guess is we’ll see some records this year,” Scott Dunn, president of the Maine Maple Producers Association, said of the March 27 event.
Occurring every year on the fourth Sunday in March, local maple syrup producers – many of them artisanal or hobbyist producers – will often spend the entire weekend opening their doors to the public. Participating producers provide pancake breakfasts, tours, information about the sugaring process and maple syrup-related products including candy, baked goods and other sweet offerings.
Dunn said there was no event in 2020 or 2021 because of the pandemic, leaving syrup producers anxious to boost sales. To make money, he said, some turned to new routes such as online sales and promotion via social media.
“Our producers have done a great job marketing maple syrup over the past two years,” he said.
Dunn said that marketing has done so well that producers can expect more visitors than even what they experienced before the pandemic.
“That’s what I’m expecting too,” said Frank Ferrucci, co-owner of Maple Moon Farm in Lebanon.
Normally, Ferrucci said, he would see about 600 people over the entire Maine Maple Sunday weekend, but decent weather will bring even more now that people are venturing out again.
“With mask mandates easing, I think people are ready to have some normalcy again,” he said.
Ferrucci said he had a good crowd during a maple producers’ event last fall, and that many people who came had only recently discovered his farm.
“We saw a lot more people saying, ‘Oh, we’re right around the corner. We didn’t know you were here.’ That’s a good thing,” he said.
In Alfred, Frank Boucher, co-owner of Giles Family Farm, was boiling down about 2,000 gallons of tree sap on Tuesday afternoon. In ideal conditions – cold at night and warmer during the day – he said, the farm’s trees can yield as much as 5,000 gallons.
“It’s Mother Nature. Every day’s different,” he said.
In addition to jugs of syrup, Boucher said his farm intends to offer maple apple crisp, maple candy and apple cider doughnuts over the weekend, and he thinks Dunn’s prediction may be right.
“As long as the weather’s decent, I think we’ll have a really good year,” he said.
Richard Guillemette, who owns Brookridge Boilers in Lyman with his wife Suzanne, said this will be the 20th time his company has participated in Maine Maple Sunday. He is counting on his wife’s recipe for a confection called “tier” to make them stand out among other sugarers. Using a recipe from her family in Quebec, tier is a maple taffy sold in eight-ounce tubs.
“It’s the same idea as sugar on snow, only without the snow,” he said, referring to the taffy-like candy usually prepared on clean snow and ice using boiling-hot syrup.
Each year, Guillemette said, they sell out of the tubs, often to online buyers. This year, he said, there will be about 100 tubs available.
“It’s a specialty item, and we’re not a big producer,” he said.
The Guillemettes make the candy in small batches, along with traditional maple syrup, as an off-season hobby before returning to work on Brookridge Farm, the couple’s organic dairy farm.
Dunn said the association encourages the public to visit the many sugar shacks on Sunday to get the most out of the annual event.
“It’s really worth making a day of, as every producer is different and has something different to offer,” he said.