03/22/2008
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Staff photo by Andy Molloyfrom the Kennebec Journal
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Staff Writer
As Mainers wait for spring weather to catch up with the calendar, the state's maple-syrup producers hope for several weeks more of nights that freeze and days that thaw.
More than 70 syrup producers around the state open their doors this weekend to thousands of curious -- and, probably, hungry -- customers for another year of a 25-year Maine Maple Sunday tradition.
The weather looks as if it might cooperate with the syrup makers as they tap trees for sap, boil it down into sugary goodness and share it with customers. The National Weather Service predicts sunny days with temperatures in the mid-30s and cloudy nights with temperatures in the mid-teens.
"The key is to get the cold nights and warm days," said Steve Poulin of Poulin's Maple Syrup. The trees "have to freeze at night and they have to thaw out during the day."
Poulin said he celebrated Easter with his family a week early to avoid a conflict with festivities on Maple Sunday, when Poulin's Windsor farm will open to those eager for a taste of this season's syrup crop atop a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
"Everybody wants to see the sap boil and have some maple syrup on ice cream," said Poulin, whose farm will be open both Saturday and Sunday.
Sherry Wilson of Wilson Family Maple/Echo Valley Farm in Albion said she is preparing for up to 5,000 visitors this weekend. Hay rides, tours and maple syrup-making demonstrations are among the Wilson family's offerings, she said.
Syrup-making is a process that has largely continued unchanged through the years, Wilson said.
"I think it's just obviously doing something that used to be done in the past," Wilson said of Maine Maple Sunday's appeal. "Teaching people that this is the way it is instead of going to the store and getting Aunt Jemima syrup. It's fun."
In Dresden, Rob Johanson of Goranson Farm said he hosts a Saturday-morning breakfast from 8:30 until noon. The breakfast tradition has stuck since friends of Johanson's held a fundraiser breakfast three years ago to rebuild after his barn burned.
Although Maine Maple Sunday and Easter fall on the same day this year -- Maple Sunday is always the fourth Sunday in March -- Johanson said he doesn't expect reduced traffic Easter Sunday, when he anticipates up to 1,400 visitors.
"It's a mad house around here on Sunday," he said. "People just come later in the day."
Plenty of customers want syrup, Maine Maple Producers Association President R. Michael Smith said, and have been fueling 10 percent to 12 percent annual spikes in demand in recent years.
"We can't keep up with demand," said Smith, who runs Mike's Maple House in Winthrop.
In the United States, Maine is behind only Vermont in the amount of maple syrup it produces -- about 5 percent of the U.S.-made crop. Still, Canadians beat their Yankee counterparts in production, making about 85 percent of the world's maple syrup, Smith said.
It takes about 40 gallons of sap to create one gallon of syrup. A single maple tree yields, on average, 15 gallons of sap in a year, according to Smith.
This year, most syrup makers are seeing a late start to tapping season.
But if the cold nights hang on long enough, Smith said, the year could be a good one.
"Right now," he said, "it looks real strong if we can get Mother Nature to cooperate."
Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435
mstone@centralmaine.com
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