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Maine Maple Sunday - How Sweet It Is!

March 25, 2009 - GORHAM —Maple syrup can be an addictive business. Just ask the makers and tasters who met up at Parsons Maple Products for Maine Maple Sunday.

The Parsons family started making maple syrup in 1990 as a sideline to their dairy farm on Buck Street. Since then, they have set up a sugarhouse that's probably twice the size of the original and they've upgraded to larger evaporators four times.

"I already want a bigger one," Bob Parsons said.

In addition to hankering for an even bigger evaporator, he thinks about adding to the 11,000 taps they already have. But there's only so much syrup one family can produce when their main business is dairy.

"This is kind of a hobby. It got a little out of control," his brother, Russ, said as sweet steam floated up from the 3- by 12-foot evaporator.

The Parsons are among the more than 70 producers around the state who opened their operations to the public for the annual event. Demonstrations, tours, samples and sales of maple products and syrup-soaked goodies are among the common offerings.

Maine Maple Sunday also gives people a chance to shake off the winter. The kind of weather needed to make the sap run – warm days despite still-freezing nights – is also about the right time for winter-weary residents to venture out to explore some of the state's agricultural operations.

At the Parsons' property, visitors passed by farm equipment, chickens pecking around a porch and a barn full of cows before reaching the sugar shack.

"It's good to get out, get the local food," said Walter Fagerlund of Windham, who was seated outside the sugarhouse with his wife, Jen, and their 22-month-old son, Matthew.

Spectators gathered by the wood-fired evaporator as Russ Parsons checked the density of the syrup with a hydrometer. At the front of the sugarhouse, family members were doing a brisk business selling the syrup produced there. Pint-sized jugs were going fast, said Dana Phinney.

"It's been pretty much like this all day," he said.

His wife, Becky, was topping ice cream cups with syrup and passing them to a seemingly never-ending stream of visitors.

Three-year-old Amara Gallagher of Falmouth was among the eager syrup samplers.

"She would eat it plain if I let her," said her mother, Alison.

For Jim Aldrich of Scarborough, touring sugarhouses is a regular springtime event. By late morning, he, his wife, her sister and her husband had already visited three sites.

"We try to go out every Maine Maple Sunday, see the farms. We try to go to different ones," said Aldrich, who likes his syrup with a bit of pancake.

Beth Parsons, who is married to Bob, would like the family's operation to join the ranks of the producers offering pancake breakfasts on Maine Maple Sunday within a few years. In the meantime, she's found lots of uses for maple syrup produced by the family's "hobby gone wild."

"I cook with it. I do my beans with maple syrup, and I put it in my coffee instead of sugar," she said.

Next year, she may steam the hot dogs and buns in sap. She's worried that syrup will gum up the steamer but thinks the sap will still provide that maple-kissed flavor.

By ANN S. KIM, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, March 23, 2009


Lakes:
Regions: Sebago


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