LIVERMORE – Despite weather conditions that canceled sleigh rides and stifled sap flows, the Washburn-Norlands Maple Sugar Days weekend got off to a good start on Saturday.

A few hundred people of all ages braved the wish-you-were-wearing-thermals, wind-chilled sunny spring day to see how maple syrup is made the old-fashioned way.

“This is a great way for kids to see what history is like,” Sarah Ricker of Pittston said regarding the living history farm’s 19th century sap-boiling process inside a sap house at the edge of a hardwoods forest.

She used to visit Norlands as a child and returned on Saturday with her husband, Sam, to show their 5-year-old son George the syrup-making process.

“We’ve gone to other places, but this just has that Maine historical feel to it. This is how Maine farmers lived,” Sarah Ricker added.

Up the hill and inside the main Norlands’ house, many dined on syrup-topped pancakes and sausages, and dishes of vanilla ice cream covered with last year’s syrup and toasted walnuts.

There, site coordinator Nancey Drinkwine and several volunteers garbed in period clothing served the food and chatted with guests.

“Today’s turnout was good, but quieter than usual,” Drinkwine said. “The crowd comes in waves. We’re enjoying it and, for the most part, staying busy. The pancakes and maple cotton candy were a huge hit and maple sundaes were another hit. We’re running out of ice cream though, but will have more for tomorrow.”

They’re open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, which is also Maine Maple Sunday, the annual spring rite whereon most maple farmers open their sugaring shacks to the public for free tastings, live demonstrations and syrup product sales.

At Norlands this year, sap hasn’t flowed enough yet to make maple syrup, according to volunteer sap boiler Shanel Lavoie. That’s why they’re using last year’s syrup.

However, Lavoie expected to start making it by Sunday inside the weathered, small wooden building at the bottom of a crusty snowfield across the road and down from the main buildings. It was that crust that prevented horses from being used to pull sleighs full of people to and from the sap house.

“We haven’t made syrup yet, because there’s not enough sap to keep it boiling,” Lavoie said late Saturday morning. “It should be good if we get the night temperatures to stay in the 30s, but it got to 15 (degrees Fahrenheit) last night at my house, so you know (the sap’s) not going to run. And, with that wind yesterday, I couldn’t even run.”

Formerly of Lisbon, the 10-year Norlands volunteer stood behind a wood-fired evaporator, disappearing then reappearing seconds later as increasingly sweet-smelling steam from boiling sap swirled around him, then up and out through an opening in the roof.

After tapping 180 maple trees a week ago and hanging pails under the spigots, Lavoie said conditions have only been just right to gather 100 gallons of sap on one day. The rest of the time, it’s been 30 to 40 gallons a day. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup.

Every so often, families trickled down from the road in bunches to crowd into the sap house where Lavoie explained the process.

“When it turns golden brown, the smell is unbelievable. It’s so sweet in here,” he said.

He also handed out metal sap-bucket covers to children and some adults so they could get in some sliding fun on the hill opposite the shack.