FRANKLIN COUNTY – Saturday and Sunday, March 23-24, maple sugar shacks across the state will be participating in the 41st annual Maine Maple Sunday Weekend of the Maine Maple Producer’s Association.
Maple products have been a New England tradition since before the region was known as New England. Though the earliest written record of it is from 1557, Native Americans cooked down the sweet tree sap long before that, using it to sweeten medicines, cure meats, and more. Now, it is difficult for many people to imagine pancakes or waffles without maple syrup, but the joys of maple products do not stop there. Many of the farms and sugar houses that participate in Maine Maple Sunday offer numerous other maple products as well.
Brandon Plaisted of Plaisted Farms Maple Products recommends people get out to enjoy the day by taking advantage of the variety available. “Go to multiple sugar houses, every sugar house is different. You’ve got bigger ones like me and you’ve got smaller ones that only have a few hundred taps. Some guys boil on oil, others boil wood. It’s good to go to a lot of different sugar houses, and there’s a lot of them, you can really make a day of it.”
When Plaisted says he’s a bigger sugar house, he’s not exaggerating. Though he personally hasn’t missed a maple sugaring season for 24 years—since he was 10—and doing it on a commercial scale for 12 years, Plaisted Farm Maple Products has been making and selling syrup for 10 years, and has seen tremendous growth over that time.
“I remember when 400 gallons was a record year for us and now that’s how much I can make in a day.” That amount of growth requires tapping a lot more trees, in addition to the extra equipment required to boil that much sap into syrup. “When I first started I tapped 15 trees and now we tap 13,000.” This gives him anywhere between 5,500-6,000 gallons of syrup in a sugaring season, though last year was only 5,200. It varies depending on how the sap is running each year. “Every season is different. That’s a guarantee, you never know until May.”
“It’s good if people get out there and check it out, a lot of people don’t even know the amount of work that goes into it.”
James Black of Black Acres Farm has a similar opinion to Plaisted’s when it comes to the importance of people seeing what goes into sugaring—as well as other farming operations, which will also be available at his and some other farms. They have participated in Maine Maple Sunday for between 20 and 25 years and Black particularly values the educational aspect. “I think for us one it gives the public a chance to come to the farm and to see our maple sugar in operation. I think that people for the most part are disconnected form their food when they go to the supermarket,” said Black.
Black added that their own farm, having animals as well as maple production, provides an opportunity to see where a lot of food comes from, beyond maple products. “I just think it provides a great opportunity to get folks out to see how maple syrup is made, but specifically at our farm the whole food production.”
Meanwhile, Tyler Jenness of JB Farms is preparing for their busiest Maine Maple Sunday yet, with numerous activities including beekeeping and blacksmith demonstrations, and horse drawn wagon rides. Though they’ll be busy, Jenness also encourages people to get out to any sugar house they can, even if it’s not his. “Whether you come to our sugarhouse or go to another sugarhouse the best thing to do is to get out and enjoy the day and enjoy locally made product that’s all-natural.”
Although the event is typically referred to as Maine Maple Sunday, it has expanded to include Saturday as well for many locations, though not all. It is good to verify which days any given location will include, and what times they open.
Here are Franklin County sugar houses that will be participating, as well as some products and activities they have said they will have available.
Black Acres Farm
123 Black Rd. Wilton
Hours: Saturday 9-2, Sunday 9-2
Products: maple syrup, honey, pork, maple baked beans, free range eggs
Activities: sugar shack tours; product samples including maple syrup, sausage, and baked beans; baby animals including cows, chickens, and pigs
What makes them unique: they have a full farm available to see in addition to the maple processes; despite being large-scale commercial size they still use wood to boil their sap; there is visible construction on a 54 x 60 foot building intended to be a large kitchen with 2025 goal of having a farm to table restaurant
Maple Hill Farm
390 Titcomb Hill Rd. Farmington
Hours: Sunday, 10-4
Activities: Smell wood smoke and maple syrup. Taste ice cream with maple syrup.
What makes them unique: the 150 year old saphouse was a Maine Maple Sunday pioneer 41 years ago!
JB Farm
140 Stinchfield Hill Rd, Chesterville
Hours: Saturday 8-1 (maple tours and tasting only), Sunday 8-4
Products: maple syrups, creams, and sauces; maple coated nuts; honey; pulled pork dinner; farm raised meats; pickles; jams; donuts
Activities: tour renovated sap house; barn tours to see cows and calves; horse-drawn wagon rides; blacksmith demonstration; beekeeping demonstration; fresh tastings of maple syrup on vanilla ice cream; samples of maple cream, maple nuts, pulled pork dinner from 11-2 or until food runs out
What makes them unique: pulled pork dinner from 11-2 or until food runs out can be taken to go or eaten in new heated seating area. Dinner includes: pulled pork in their maple barbecue rub with maple barbecue sauce, baked beans or mac and cheese, coleslaw, cornbread, and a drink, all for $15.
Plaisted Maple Farm Products
132 Borough Rd., Jay
Hours: Sunday 9-3
Products: maple syrup
Activities: boiling demonstration, ice cream with maple syrup, coffee, hot chocolate
What makes them unique: particularly large commercial operation using oil boilers
Schanz Family Maple
773 Barker Rd., New Vineyard
Hours: Saturday 9-4, Sunday 12-5
Products: maple syrup, maple cream, maple nuts, maple candy
Activites: tours, free baked goods, coffee, ice cream with maple syrup
What makes them unique: a family-run operation with a lot of family members readily available to answer questions, show people around, and more!
Please note that their Sunday hours start later.
Shady Lane
108 Brahmer Rd., New Vineyard
Hours: Sunday 8-4
Products: syrup
Activities: tours of sugar shack and barn including baby animals, free ice cream with maple syrup, maple popcorn samples, horses, pancake breakfast in the morning, pig roast 11-11:30
True Mountain Maple
227 Federal Row, Industry
Hours: Sunday 10-2
Products: maple syrup, maple syrup infused with seasonings, granulated sugar
What makes them unique: syrup is wood fired and packaged exclusively in glass; they experiment with infusing syrup with seasonings such as ginger and sacred basil.
Votervale Farm Maple Products
738A River Rd, Avon
Hours: Saturday 9-4, Sunday 9-4
Products: maple syrup, hand-made small batch maple candies, pure maple sugar, maple popcorn, maple whoopie pies, maple cookies
Activities: tour of sugar house, samples of maple syrup on ice cream or by itself
What makes them unique: pride themselves on using latest techniques while maintaining tradition; Port-a-Potty available
The following events are also taking place at other locations during Maine Maple Sunday:
Colby Woods Cattle
612 Borough Road, Chesterville
Offering a breakfast special: 1 pint of Plaisted Farm Maple Products maple syrup plus 2 lbs of ground sausage, for $24. Available Saturday and Sunday.
Maple Saturday Pancake Fundraiser
CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER
43 Stantondell Rd., Livermore Falls
Saturday 9-12
Benefiting local Food Cupboard of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls (FCJLLF)
Breakfast includes pancakes, beans, coffee and juice. Maple syrup is available for sale.
To go further afield, these are the sugar houses located in the counties directly neighboring Franklin County. For participants in other counties, see the full list at mainemapleproducers.com
Androscoggin
Blais Maple Syrup – Greene
Jillson Farm Sugarhouse – Sabattus
Maple Rush Sugar House – Sabattus
Pep’s Pure Maple Syrup – Sabattus
Ricker Hill Orchards / Maple – Turner
Slattery’s Sugarhouse – West Minot
Kennebec
Back 40 Maple Products – Vassalboro
Bacon Farm Maple Products – Sidney
Battleridge Syrup – Clinton
Dead Stream Farm Maple – Readfield
Doom Forest Distillery – Pittston
Kinney’s Sugarhouse – Knox
Mikes Maple House – Winthrop
Poulin’s Maple Syrup – Windsor
Raider’s Sugarhouse – China
Wilson Family Maple Syrup – Albion
Wolf Creek Maple – Sidney
Oxford
A Wrinkle in Thyme Farm – Sumner
Aziscohos Maple Co. – Wilson’s Mills (Lincoln Plantation)
Colonial Hill Farm – Waterford
Dunham Farm—Velvet Hollow Sugar Works – Greenwood
Gray Farm Maple LLC – Denmark
Hall Farms Maple Products – Dixfield
Maple Mills LLC – Lincoln Plantation
Road’s End Farm – Canton
Swain Family Farm – Bethel
The Farm at Rowe Hill – Greenwood
Weston’s Farm LLC – Fryeburg
Somerset
Corson Farms – Pittsfield
Eureka Farms – Palmyra
Haulk’s Maple – Madison
Libby Maple – Cornville
Luces Maine Maple Syrup – Anson
Maine Academy of Natural Sciences – Hinckley
Moscow Maple – Moscow
Sawyer’s Maple Farm – Moose River
Smith Brothers Maple – Skowhegan
Tupper & Friends Maple – Cornville
Are we missing anyone? Email us to let us know who we should add!
