NEW GLOUCESTER — Most would have expected a low-production maple syrup season followed by rainy weather to dampen spirits on Maine Maple Sunday.

Most thought wrong.

Eager maple lovers showed up in droves throughout the state to support locally owned and operated sugar shacks.

“We came out three years ago, and we really enjoyed it and we were looking to come out again,” Mari Whittaker of Freeport said. “I’m from Vermont, originally, so maple-syruping was part of my growing up.”

Whittaker spent the day traveling to different operations with her daughters, Grace, 5, and Lucy, 10. The family enjoyed a campfire where baked apples were infused with maple syrup and raisins and roasted in the flames at Norumbega Farm in New Gloucester Sunday afternoon.

The operation, now in its second year, is run by Noah Fralich and his father, Michael. The younger Fralich now lives in Germany, but made the trip home this past month to run the maple syrup operation with his family.

Fralich called the New Gloucester endeavor a “community effort,” because most of the maple trees tapped by his family actually belong to neighbors, who were also gracious enough to donate a pot here, a stirrer there, another piece of equipment there, as he and his father built the sugar shack behind their Woodman Road farm.

Fralich said due to unseasonably warm temperatures the shack only produced 10 gallons of syrup in its second season, compared to the 20 gallons of syrup bottled last year. That translated to just 100 12-ounce bottles (which is all the operation sells), or half of what the shack produced in its first year.

“The amount we sold just at Maine Maple Sunday last year was probably everything we produced this year,” Fralich said.

Fralich wasn’t the only maple harvester to find his buckets low and his season short. Longtime friends Andrew Simpson and Scott Morin, owners of Danville Sugarhouse just outside Auburn, also saw a significant drop in production this year due to the wicked, weird, record-breaking temperatures.

Morin and Simpson started their operation four years ago in an abandoned sugarhouse that sets back in the woods about a half mile off Old Danville Road. Many people simply stopped by the roadside stand to stock up on the precious amber liquid. Dozens more trekked their way through the woods back to the bright red shack dating back to the 1950s, when an old railroad car hauled customers the short distance from the main road to its front door.

“It’s nice to support the local businesses,” said Debora Cleveland of Auburn, who came out to the local operation with her husband, John.

The couple were among those who borrowed an umbrella at the bottom of the hill and braved the muddy road up to the sugarhouse where Morin and Simpson offered free samples, demonstrations and history lessons about the building and surrounding land. They both stressed the importance of holding on to the tradition of maple syrup production and were happy to see more young people picking up the art form. Morin and Simpson are both in their 20s.

Like their fellow maple syrup producers down the road in New Gloucester, Morin said he and Simpson also produced a little more than half of what they did last year. This year, the two produced 65 gallons of maple syrup compared to the 95 gallons they made last year.

But, Morin quickly adds, he and his partner also added 300 new taps this year, drawing from 700 trees instead of the 400 tapped last year.

Regardless of the low production, Morin kept a bright outlook and pointed out that he doesn’t do this for his livelihood, but rather his hobby. Keeping that in mind, he said, makes the work fun to return to year after year.

That fun also keeps his neighbors and customers coming back for more. According to Simpson’s mom, Dawn, customers seemed to be stocking up this year given the low amount of maple syrup produced.

“We ran out last year,” said Jon Godfrey of Danville, who was buying a gallon of maple syrup this season, double the half-gallon he bought last year. “I mean, we ran out. I guess we ate too many pancakes last year.”

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