MAINE, USA — Maine Maple Fall Fest has returned for another year this weekend. More than 20 locations across the state are taking part in offering samples and demonstrations relating to all things maple.
John and Eileen Williams, owners of Williams Family Farm in Clifton, are one of the locations getting in on the fun.
The Williams said they are relatively new to syrup production, tapping their first few trees back in 2018.
"We didn't even know how to tap a tree, let's put it that way, when we first started," Eileen said.
Eileen added it all sort of happened on a whim almost five years ago.
"I mistakenly asked him [John] to tap a couple trees and somehow tapping a couple trees turned into 500 trees," Eileen said.
From there, tapping 500 trees has since grown into more than 2,100 trees, which has allowed them to create products beyond the syrup, like maple-coated nuts, maple candy, maple cream, and maple sugar.
The Williams said they sell their maple sugar in a variety of sizes, as well as also using it to create maple cotton candy.
As part of Maine Maple Fall Fest, John will be showing demonstrations of how he turns maple syrup into maple sugar throughout the day.
Eileen said this weekend-long celebration started during the pandemic to make up for the cancellation of Maine Maple Weekend, which always takes place during sugaring season in March.
"Everybody usually has a lot of revenue on that weekend when you have two or three days, a big celebration, thousands of people come into your sugar house to buy your product," Eileen said.
The Maine Maple Producers Association has continued to keep Maine Maple Fall Fest going ever since.
While Eileen said it's always a nice boost in business, she said tourists are usually still visiting Maine this time of year, anyway.
"You don't have to do anything to get people here in the fall. Leaf-peeping, I think this area where we're at right now is getting pretty close to peak, it's beautiful," Eileen said.
For the full list of participating Maine Maple Fall Fest locations, click here.