How sweet it is: Maine Maple Sunday Weekend

Tue, 03/19/2024 - 12:15pm

The words maple syrup might bring to mind steaming pancakes with a pat of butter with syrupy goodness being poured. But as many New Englanders know, maple syrup is used as far more than sweet dressing for pancakes! 

The participating Maine maple syrup makers are all members of the The Maine Maple Producers Association. Most of the farms will be open both days from 10 a.m. to  4 p.m., unless otherwise noted.

Farms within the Boothbay Register/Wiscasset Newspaper readership, and a couple in the Pen Bay Pilot area a bit further north, are listed below. Recipes for maple BBQ sauce, glazes, cookies, candy and more are on the website with statewide listings: https://mainemapleproducers.com/events/maine-maple-weekend/#!directory/map

Rock Acer Works - 626 Barnestown Road, Hope. Shack will be open for visitors both days from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Maple products will be available for purchase and sampling. They will be boiling and giving a full demonstration of the sugaring process.

Goranson’s Farm - 250 River Road, Dresden - Small family-owned maple syrup producer in Midcoast Maine. Small batch process using wood only to fire the evaporator.  They do not use a reverse osmosis machine so “the flavor of our syrup is as authentic as it can be.” An interesting fact posted on the Farm’s Facebook page: It takes 40-60 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Last week, they “boiled off” 900 gallons of sap!

BlackOwl Maple Products - 21 Woodchuck Way, Jefferson - Specializing in dark maple grades. Sugarhouse tour. Sample select maple goodies, then buy some for home. There’s a lot to choose from, too. 

Marcoux Family Farm LLC  - 155 Gibbs Road, Wiscasset - Come see the new expansion of the Maple Sugar Shack, nearly tripled in size! Sweets include maple-coated cashews, maple cream, maple sugar candies, cotton candy, maple Whoopie pies; new this year: freeze-dried maple marshmallows and Maple Needhams.

Sparky’s Honey and Maple - 130 High St., Hope - Producers of honey and maple syrup since 1980.

Sweetwoods Farm - 144 Lynch Road, Newcastle. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days. Check out how the maple syrup production works. A booth will be set up outside for people to stop by to sample sweet Maine Maple Syrup and purchase a bottle to go home. Disabled accessibility. 

Wilson Family Maple Syrup - 652 Bentan Road, Albion. Pancake samples plus ice cream samples with “our own maple syrup,” plenty of maple products, maple cotton candy, maple cream and taffy, maple-coated peanuts and popcorn, maple candy, other maple treats, and meet the farm horses. Disabled access.