YORK COUNTY — Ingrid Creutz, 5, dipped a wooden spoon into a bowl of maple cream and took a taste.

Then, the Steep Falls youngster, on a trip to Morin’s Sugar House in Limerick with her mother, just smiled.

Was it good?

She smiled wider.

There’s no doubt about it, maple syrup — the real thing — is the ultimate toast to Maine’s sugar maple, that lovely tree that provides pretty green leaves in the summer that turn to rich hues of red and orange in the autumn. The sap from those trees, when reduced, is transformed into syrup, a warm, heady sweetness that is unparalleled.

People from all over were visiting sugar houses in York County and across the state on Maine Maple Weekend, heralding the syrup, an early spring treat.

Maine Maple Sunday, always the fourth Sunday in March, has expanded to the entire weekend. On Saturday, sugar shacks were busy with visitors sampling maple treats and observing how the colorless tree sap is transformed into varying grades of light to dark amber syrup.

There was plenty of syrup and maple cream and other maple products in evidence during Maine Maple Weekend, but producers say continuing cold and frozen ground has meant the maple syrup production season has gotten off to a slow, albeit tasty, start.

At Morin’s Sugar House, Doug Morin was in the sap house, tending to the syrup-making process while his daughter Ami Ferguson and her son Jimmy, 10, were behind the counter, offering samples of maple cream and maple butter and other maple treats.

Jimmy Ferguson is the fourth generation of his family in Maine to be involved in the syrup-making tradition. His great-grandfather, Gerard Morin, was the first.

Ami Ferguson said she can remember going to Quebec years ago, and viewing the sap house where her Morin ancestors made syrup. Her father, Doug, she said, has been making syrup since he was a kid.

In the sap house, Doug Morin was heating sap in the evaporator, and the steam rose in clouds over his head.

On Friday night, he made 38 gallons of syrup, and has made about 300 gallons so far in the season — about a quarter of the amount he usually has made by this time in the production season, he said.

“It’s slow because it’s so cold,” said Morin. He said he expects the coming week, with warmer daytime weather in the forecast, will see a better sap flow — and more syrup.

The season is short, only about six weeks. Once the trees begin to bud, it is over, syrup-makers say.

A few miles away in Newfield, Ashley and Leah Gerry were making syrup, assisted by family and friends, at their Maple Hill Sugar House.

The Gerry’s have 350 maple taps n the yard and another 1,800 on the hill behind the property. Leah Gerry estimated they made about 800 gallons of syrup in 2018.

Saturday was their 10th boil of this season and the couple agree  the cold temperatures has meant the sap isn’t flowing as swiftly as it has in some prior years. They too,believe the warmer daytime temperatures forecast for this week will help production.

The good news is that the sugar content is where it should be, said Leah Gerry.

“Last year, it was about 1.7 percent,” she said, which means it took about 50 or more gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.

This year, its averaging 2.2 percent, which means it is closer to the often quoted 40 to 1 ratio.

What’s that all about?

Ashley Gerry said sometimes, a lower sugar content can be traced to a dry summer the previous year, with little rain, sometimes the photosynthesis is off, sometimes trees sustain damage in storms.

“All affect then sugar content,” he said.

Some sugar houses are open beyond Maine Maple Weekend. Check with the Southern Maine Maple Sugarmakers Association website for more information: https://www.smmsa.org.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 780-9016 or twells@journaltribune.com.

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