Maple Sunday

[western mainer]

Well, it was our 1st Maine Maple Sunday. We had a great turn out and sold Maple and honey, and served home made maple ice cream How much more could we ask for!
Brian

[Flat47]

How much more could we ask for!
Brian

How about more sap and better weather...but it was a good day none the less. Snowed most of the day and the wind blew right in through the open sugarhouse doors. Snow was sizzling off of the evaportor front. You could watch the temp fall with the doors open. Close the doors and the temp recovered, but the house filled with steam...just couldn't win. We still had fun, though. Made some really great tasting dark. I'm surprised it was that light of grade considering the week's temps and how cloudy the sap was.

Glad to hear more people are hosting Maple Sunday. Congrats on your first year!

[gmcooper]

This was at least our 23 year doing Maple Sunday. We had a really good day considering the rain for most off the day. Most visitors came prepared and made the most of it. Gave out well over 2000 ice cream w/syrup samples. Had around 600 breakfasts. Nearly sold out of all our products and we had more than ever on hand. Overall it was a great day. Have to wonder how busy it would have been if it had been a nice day like any of the past week. Met a number of newer sugarmakers. We had visitors from Fort Kent, ME to Rhode Island.
Mark

[RollinsOrchards]

We didn't have a great turnout given the drizzle in our area. Had probably between 30 and 40 people, but I knew all of them, does that count?

Sold a few quarts of Syrup, and a fair amount of Cider and Apples, but not quite as busy as I had hoped. Hard to compete with Bob's sugarhouse 15 miles away and their wall to wall radio ads all week. . .

[Revi]

We went around and visited other sugarhouses. We found a really cool one up on a mountain in Temple. Johnson Mountain sugarhouse. We also checked out Black Acres and Tessier's Farm. It was rainy, but it was fun to see everyone's sugaring operations. We didn't have enough to sell, so we put a sign up that said Sorry, closed and went travelling.

[Like Minded Farmer]

This was our first open house and considering we did not advertize, we were happy with 30 or so families that stopped in. A good day was had by all, sold some syrup and sold out of home made bread. The sugar house is still unnamed so it is hard to advertize. We had a little "name the farm" contest but still no names we liked, so for now we'll enjoy being the no name sugar house. The worst part of doing this is for the first time we are staying home instead of going out visiting the boilers in our area.

[gmcooper]

Anyone else with more reports on Maple Sunday? From what i have heard from a few people around here attendance was varied quite a bit. I know one other sugarhouse near us was very busy as well but have been hearing some others nearby were almost empty much of the day. I know the number of people that visit 4-5 sugarhouses a day had to have dropped because of the rain but we did have several here mention they had been to others or were going to others when they left our place. Just looking for a bit more info before our next maple producers meeting.
Mark

[500592]

We went to a place on saturday and bought a 10 year old 3x8 raised flue so excited for next year now and it was up north but there was still a fair amount of people in and out.

[MainelyMaple]

We had a surprisingly good turnout here in Auburn at the Danville Sugarhouse. We had low expectations with the weather, however I was amazed at how many people hiked the 1/4 mile into the woods to come visit us.We sold about half our syrup which we were pleased with considering the weather and it only being our 2nd year open.

A couple people from the sun journal stopped by and included us in an article they ran about Maine maple Sunday. I posted a link to the article on my phone so I'm not sure if it will work or not.

http://m.sunjournal.com/news/city/2012/03/26/maine-maple-sunday-draws-crowds-despite-rain-low-p/1173158