JAY/LIVERMORE — Maine Maple Sunday had a different feel to it this year, what with the cold weather and the lack of sap running.
“Last year was probably the best maple syrup season we’ve had in the last five years,” observed Gunnar Higgins as he tended the boiling sap at Boothby’s Sugar Shack in Livermore. “This year, we haven’t even made enough for ourselves. It’s too cold during the day.”
Maple syrup producers welcome days above freezing and cold nights to maximize the sap output. However, this March, the temperatures have struggled to get above freezing during the day and have often been below zero at night.
At Boothby’s, sap is collected by dogsled in 10-gallon pails and then put into five-gallon buckets. It’s then boiled down and put into smaller containers.
“Some people do it in batches, but we just keep going until we finish it off,” said Higgins.
It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.
Higgins’ stepdad, Rob Boothby, was inside the family’s farm stand serving samples of some of his recently produced wines. The rest of the Boothby family helped out selling bottles of maple syrup, and providing snacks and syrup over ice cream to hungry visitors.
People braved the wind whipping spindrift across the open fields at Norlands to visit the sap house and see the pails on the trees collecting sap. Norlands volunteer Ray Fleury noted that the 60 taps were put in a week and a half ago. Just enough sap was collected during that time to fill the sap pan for Maine Maple Sunday.
“When it’s running good, you’re collecting 80 gallons a day,” Fleury pointed out.
Light, medium, and dark maple syrup are produced during the three- to five-week season.
“The closer to the end of the season the darker it is,” said Fleury. “We’ve never graded it here. We’re doing it the more traditional way, and being self-sustaining.”
In the 19th century, maple sugar was the primary sweetener for most families, he said. White sugar was used only on special occasions because it was expensive.
Maple Valley Farms had a good turnout in spite of the weather, and the lack of sap. Owner Tony Couture said that only 18 gallons of syrup had been made so far.
“We’ve had seasons in February where we’ve made over 100 gallons,” he said. “We’ve got a good snow pack, so I think we’ll go all through April.”
The Coutures were offering lighter and darker kinds of maple syrup for sale.
“But right now, it’s more the beginning of the season. Medium and dark is mostly what we make now,” said Lindsey Couture.
“Most people like the dark,” added Tony.
They also had maple candy, taffy, ice cream with maple syrup, and maple glazed peanuts.
Maple Valley Farms held a drawing for four quarts of maple syrup. The winners, who got one quart each, were Julia Hoisington, of Norway; Oral Tibbetts, of Jay; John Crowley, of Jay; and Jamie Ellsworth, of Farmington.
Gunnar Higgins (center) explains how the syrup-making process works during Maine Maple Sunday at Boothby’s Sugar Shack.
Ray Fleury is surrounded by steam as the sap boils during Maine Maple Sunday at Norlands.
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