It’s been a so-so year for maple syrup making, and Maine Maple Sunday, the annual celebration of all things maple syrup-related, fell on Easter this year.
But that didn’t stop the crowds from descending on sugarhouses throughout southern Maine.
“It’s busier than ever,” said Lexi Merrifield of Merrifield farm in Gorham, where they were having to bottle more syrup on Sunday after selling out the day before.
Sugar-making operations that opened on Easter Sunday reported a brisk business, possibly the result of some sugarhouses deciding to stay closed for the religious holiday.
Maine Maple Sunday is always held on the fourth Sunday in March. Its falling on Easter Sunday is an unusual occurrence that last happened in 2008 and won’t happen again until 2027.
The 95 or so maple producers statewide who take part in Maine Maple Sunday often open on Saturday as well. This year they had to decide whether to remain open or appoint another day as Maple Sunday. Ten to 15 producers decided to stay closed while others opted to open on an alternative weekend, according to an informal survey by Michael Bryant, owner of Hilltop Boilers in Newfield.
Despite the coincidence, large numbers of visitors showed up Sunday at several sugarhouses in southern Maine, apparently their sweet teeth not sated by marshmallow chicks, jellybeans and chocolate bunnies and wanting some maple syrup to wash it all down.
“We had a couple of thousand people yesterday,” said Rick Chase of Chase Farms in Wells, which has been in his family since the land was settled in the early 1700s.
About the same numbers were showing up Sunday, said Chase.
The Chases, who started participating in the decades-old Maine Maple Sunday just three years ago, were selling maple-glazed doughnuts, maple cotton candy, maple sugar candies and a range of lunch food. The farm and its animal attractions were part of the draw. A meticulously kept barn housed a litter of 6-week-old piglets, a flock of 2-week-old chicks, a small herd of newborn Herefords and a team of Belgian horses, Jack and Tom. The other team, Bob and Bill, were outside providing carriage rides.
“The ride was wonderful,” said Russ Pelton of Arundel.
Maine Maple Sunday can be a lucrative endeavor, with some operators earning thousands of dollars – helping to make up for a lackluster season. This year’s production in southern Maine has been running about half of what it is in a great year in Maine, the country’s third-largest maple syrup- producing state.
Blake Douston of Douston Maple and Honey in Arundel keeps a tally of each year’s production on a wall of the family sugarhouse, which he and his father built in 2012. The first year they made 18.5 gallons. They produced 55 gallons in 2013, 85 in 2014 and 100 in 2015. This year they topped out at 60 gallons.
“You have to play with the cards you are dealt,” said Douston.
The maple syrup operation was the result of a childhood “hobby gone bad,” said Douston, who got interested after watching his neighbors sap a row of ancient sugar maples on Old Alfred Road. Today Douston, 18, taps 500 trees and has gotten the whole family involved, including his father, Shawn, his mother, Gail, and older brothers Logan and Garth.
He is also responsible for the farm’s honey operation after getting hooked on beekeeping at one point. Douston, who is working to become an electrician, said even though he has yet to make a profit, he intends to keep at the sugaring business. He likes all the tinkering involved.
“And you get to be outside and watch the spring,” said Douston.
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