After being sidelined last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, Maine Maple Sunday weekend had a successful first day back.

In 2020, a few days after Gov. Janet Mills declared a state of emergency in response to the coronavirus, the Maine Maple Producers Association, a nonprofit organization that represents half of the state’s 450 maple producers, said that all Maine Maple Sunday events should be postponed to slow the spread of the virus.

While some maple producers in 2020 elected to do smaller events that leaned heavily on curbside pickup, a majority of the maple farms elected to cancel events and wait until 2021 to return.

For a majority of farmers and maple producers in central and western Maine, Maine Maple Sunday is the busiest day of the year. The maple industry brings $27 million a year into the state, and at least half of that is from selling syrup and other maple products on Maine Maple weekend.

Tom Edgecomb, a fourth generation farmer whose family runs Pep’s Pure Maple Syrup in Sabattus, canceled the event last year.

“Last year was our highest production year to date, and it was the least amount of sales,” Edgecomb said. “Thankfully, this year, we were able to find a way to make it work.”

Edgecomb said that Pep’s Pure Maple Syrup had a successful Saturday due to holding most of its activities outdoors, including in-person demonstrations.

“Usually, we like to get people into the sugar shack and I give a nice speech on the entire process and how the syrup is made, but we just didn’t have the space to do that,” Edgecomb said. “Instead, I would take a few people aside and let them look through the window while we were cooking.”

He said that just after noon, they had already sold out of maple taffy and donuts, some of their more popular items.

“I’ll probably stay up tonight and make some more for Sunday,” Edgecomb said.

Joe and Darlene Lavoie, who run Dad’s Maple Sugar Shack in Harrison, said that compared to last year, this year was “absolutely great.”

Darlene Lavoie said that the crowds Saturday were “low and slow” and that there were “a lot of muddy kids collecting sap.”

“We set up tiny buckets for the kids to use to collect sap along our trails,” Darlene said. “Because of the rain yesterday, it ended up being a swamp on the trails, but by God, the kids went out there and collected their own sap.”

Darlene said that her husband has been making syrup for 30 years, back when he was using a turkey fryer to make it.

Now, three decades later, she said that they are operating their own business and having fun doing it.

“Our children help by participating on Maine Maple Sunday and even our grandchildren got involved by making some cotton candy,” Darlene said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

At Ricker Hill Orchards in Turner, Steve Maheu said that last year “was a shock to the system for all maple producers.”

“I think this today went OK,” Maheu said. “It was better than last year but still a far cry from what we had two or three years ago. It was a good start for the weekend.”

Maheu said that Ricker Hill Orchards allowed 20 to 25 people to participate in dine-in services by rotating them out in intervals of 20 minutes.

“We just want to try and make people feel a little bit safer,” Maheu said. “We made sure to not have people lining up and bottle-necking, and we also didn’t let anyone come inside the sap house this year.”

Overall, Maheu said he was happy with how things turned out a year removed from the start of the pandemic.

“I’m sure it’ll get better as time goes on, but this year could’ve been a whole lot worse,” Maheu said. “At least this year, people got to get outside, socialize a little bit and enjoy Maine Maple Sunday.”

Pep’s Pure Maple Syrup, Dad’s Maple Sugar Shack and Ricker Hill Orchards will all be open on Sunday for more maple-related festivities.

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