Forty years ago, the first Maine Maple Sunday was held celebrating a process and product colonists learned from Native Americans here in the Northeast. Before the colonists arrived with their iron kettles, Native Americans boiled the syrup by dropping super hot stones into sap held in thick wood containers. Maine maple syrup producers have come quite a long way since then! If you love history, visit Maine Maple Producers Association’s site.

To celebrate this longstanding tradition, today’s sugarhouses offer demonstrations and tours as well as sweet,yummy samples so good you have to buy some syrup for pancakes, French toast, waffles, baked goods, as a topper for ice cream … the list is endless!

Get out there and support this weather-dependent industry; the freeze-thaw cycle is necessary for sap flow is challenging. Find out more in the January Maine Maple Producers Association newsletter: https://bit.ly/3JzoD2w

Here are some farms close by and an hour’s (or so) drive from Wiscasset and the Boothbay region:

Albion: Wilson Family Maple Syrup, 652 Bentan Road. Owners Paul and Sherry Wilson are offering maple syrup demos (weather permitting). Hay wagon ride tours of the sugarbush – with a donation; pancake samples plus ice cream samples with the Wilsons’ maple syrup, plenty of maple products, maple cotton candy, maple cream, taffy, maple coated peanuts and popcorn, maple candy and other maple treats, and meet the farm horses. Open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Handicapped accessible! 207-453-6969.

Wiscasset: Marcoux Family Farm, LLC at 179 Gibbs Road. Owners Chris and Bonnie Marcoux make wood-fired maple syrup. Maple drops, cotton candy, cashews and more. The farm will be open both Saturday, March 25 and Sunday, March 26 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. A 100% service-connected disabled veteran owned farm. 

Jefferson: BlackOwl Maple Products, 21 Woodchuck Way. Owners John and Lisa Lee will offer sugar house tours with free samples Sunday only from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Products range from syrup to candy to maple Chex, peanuts, granola and more. 207-215-9471.

Newcastle: SweetWoods Farm, 144 Lynch Road. Jill and Justin Wood are offering tours of their sweet operation. Tasting booths of the farm’s sweet maple syrup will be set up outside. Maple cotton candy, maple glazed nuts (some with a kick!) candy, “mapplesauce,” and more. Curbside pickup offered for orders. 207-380-5228.

Hope: Rock Acer Works, 626 Barnestown Road. Owner Andrew Pease is opening the farm both days, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Maple products for sampling and sale. The farm will be boiling and giving a full demonstration of the sugaring process.

Hope: Sparky's Honey and Maple, 130 High St. Owner David C. Smith. Sugar shack with honey and maple syrups. 207-831-5085.

For more about Maine maple syrup and the history behind this 40-year-old tradition, visit mainemapleproducers.com