Maine Maple Weekend 2013

This year we had over 200 people come through the sugar house, many of them here for the first time to see the wood fired evaporator in operation with a gravity feed system.  Over the weekend Mary Ann made over 2 gallons of syrup while explaining how the evaporator works.

Wood Fired Evaporator in action

Collecting sap along the road

Overall this year has been a much better sap year than last. The main problem this year was ice in the buckets.  We had to gather ice from the buckets on Thursday and Friday and put the ice in blue barrels inside the Tesseract where the radient heat from the solar panels melted it over a couple of days…this in order to have sap to use for the demonstrations.  We have a bigger holding tank for gathering sap from buckets along the road with the truck, but it is not good for the ice.  

New big sap tank in the pcikup

 A big thanks to Lee Ann, our regular farm hand, and Sophie and Renee, our WOOFers.  Sophie and Renee came to us through our connection with Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), an organization that links willing workers with host farms, facilitating the sharing of knowledge and skills in exchange for room and board on the farm.  For weeks they helped us prepare for the weekend event, tapping trees, gathering sap, making and bottling and tagging maple syrup, cleaning inside the barn, outside, in the sugar house, and in the Tesseract. 

Everyone seemed to lambs in the barn, where Renee, Anna, and Sophrinia offered information and tours to include petting baby lambs just a few days old. 

 

Bubba, the draft horse stood out back, grateful for the carrots and apples offered to him. 

The yearlings, also behind the barn, a week later are still waiting to give birth to their Finn cross lambs.  

Thanks to Barbara, here on her spring break, who  made the kitchen and workshop area ready for guests to enjoy the pancakes and sausage breakfast. 

Thanks also to Jen, who periodically transforms our store into a beautiful sight to behold. 

Both days our fiber CSA members were here to help out. Wendy served by greeting people and organizing parking. At one point on Sunday there were over 20 cars here.Priscilla and Kathleen did an awesome job as cashier in the store while Marty demonstrated spinning and needle felting and answered customer’s questions.

Jan, Edith, Cheryl, Lee, Marianne, and Diane kept the sausage and pancakes coming fresh and hot and washed dishes. We made several 8 big batches of Master Mix for the pancakes.  I guess we need to get more plates from the free store since there were times when all the plates we had were in use.  We planned to serve 20 at a time, and ended up setting up an extra table for more to be seated.

Kathleen’s hubby, Kevin built an awesome fire in the earth oven, our new addition for 2012.  After lunch we enjoyed fresh biscuits baked in 4 minutes flat, and later in the day on Sunday delicious pizza filled our appetites.  Maybe next time we will be able to feed more people.

We appreciated Robin and Patty, friends who were here throughout the weekend to help with whatever needed to be done from splitting wood for the wood fired evaporator to mixing pancake batter and serving tables.

After lunch visitors, including a group of eager children went out into the orchard field and around the stone walls to collect sap.  Everyone seemed to enjoy that.  People seemed comfortable here….sitting around with an extra cup of hot sap tea or maple coffee and chatting with friends.

At the end of the day Sunday, after we gathered up a pair of boots, a jacket, and sunglasses. Guess we need a lost and found department now. If you are missing personal belongings from the weekend call us.

As the Farm event signs came down we evaluated the weekend….make more pancake mix next year, how much sausage to thaw, a sign up sheet so we know how many people come, take more pictures…..by the way, if you got a good picture of your family or children needle felting, gathering sap,  petting lambs, or Bubba, or just being cute we would love to share them on our web site.

We wondered how people found us, heard about us, and decided to come. We appreciate  that so many people came here to help and to enjoy the spring ritual making of maple syrup in Maine. Our thanks to all who made it a great weekend to remember.

The Sugar House