By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

MINOT – Gallons of sweet, amber liquid – the remnants of the season’s first attempt to make maple syrup – pooled in the bottom of Wayne Slattery’s evaporator.

“We boiled and boiled and boiled,” Slattery said, nodding toward the Chevy-sized stainless steel contraption in the center of his West Minot sugarhouse. For this first batch, he and partner Jim Mavor of Hebron boiled 300 gallons of filtered sap while working out the kinks in a web of machines and hoses.

“We didn’t get a single drop of syrup,” said Slattery. However, the sweet-but-runny liquid that resulted from that first boil – done last Tuesday – was almost syrup.

Across Maine, producers expect to have a good year, though the cold weather has delayed the season by about a week.

Meanwhile, with recent temperatures freezing at night and warming during the day, they expect to be in good shape when sugarhouses open their doors for Sunday’s annual Maine Maple Sunday celebration.

“You take it as it comes,” Slattery said, sitting beside a row of bottles filled with the syrup he made. “You don’t really know how the season will be until it’s all over.”

The last few seasons have been good, according to the New England Agricultural Statistics Service.

Of the 1.51 million gallons of syrup produced nationwide last year, about 290,000 were made here in Maine. Almost as much, about 284,000 gallons, was produced in Maine the year before, according to the statistics service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“2004 was really good for us,” Slattery said. He produced 300 gallons of syrup last year, most of which was medium-light with lots of sugar.

Not all local producers had the same experience, however. Part of that was last year’s unusual season, which began early.

The weather turned warm and, without the daily climate swings around the freezing mark, the sap didn’t last long.

For Tony and Irene Couture, whose family runs Maple Valley Farms in Jay, last year was a disappointment. Production dipped from the previous year.

However, encouraged by the mild rise in temperatures this season and an expansion to 1,700 taps, they are prepared for a good year.

“It’s starting,” said Irene Couture, eager to see a steady flow of sap.

On Maine Maple Sunday, they expect to host as many as 500 people for meals of pancakes and syrup.

Producers in country farms across Maine are preparing for scores of family visits.

All good’

At the Couture farm, among others, facilities are ready to accept bus tours. They’re part of a growing “agri-tourism” industry, according to Deanne Herman, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Agriculture.

The value of each year’s production has been climbing quickly.

In 2001, Maine’s maple harvest was valued at $4.3 million, according to the USDA. A year later, the number rose to $5.3 million. In 2003, it climbed again, to $6.4 million.

It’s not just syrup. At farms such as J.L. Dyke Farm in Canton, they sell such products as maple cream, butter and candy.

And it’s not just on Sunday.

On Saturday nights this month, the Slatterys of West Minot have been hosting people for dinners in the back of their sugarhouse.

They serve maple baked beans, maple hot dogs, maple cornbread, maple yeast buns and ice cream with maple topping. Only the chop suey escapes the maple-mania.

“I use it cooking all the time,” said Toni Slattery, Wayne’s wife and the head cook for the well-attended suppers. When snow buried the region on March 12, more than 40 people braved the cold to taste her creations.

“It’s all good,” said her husband. “It’s all maple.”

Copy the Story Link