Sugar houses tweak schedules for Maine Maple Sunday, Easter overlap
PHOTO CREDIT / RUSS DILLINGHAM
It's maple syrup time: Rob Johanson carries a propane heater to the sugar house to get it ready for the sugaring season at Goranson Farm in Dresden last April.
Sugar houses across the state are adjusting their annual festivities for this weekend’s Maine Maple Sunday, as the celebration of all things maple falls on Easter Sunday for the first time in eight years.
Michael Bryant, owner of Hilltop Boilers in Newfield, told the Portland Press Herald that his sugar house held events similar to those of Maine Maple Sunday last weekend, and will be celebrating this weekend on Saturday instead — as he plans on spending Easter Sunday at church with his family.
“Everybody knows that their sales are going to be down on Easter,” Bryant said.
Bryant said that an informal survey he conducted over the winter with syrup makers found that roughly 95 sugar houses will be holding open houses this Sunday, while 10 to 15 decided to hold events the weekend before or after Easter weekend.
“I’d say there are seven or eight that have totally canceled because of the Easter conflict,” Bryant said.
Ashley Gerry, who owns the Maple Hill Sugar House just a few miles from Bryant’s Hilltop Boilers, will be open for both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, the same as he has done for years.
“The crowds are lighter,” said Gerry. “Usually they come earlier in the day and it thins out in the afternoon, but people still enjoy doing it.”
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