GRAY, Maine — Dozens of Maine maple producers gathered in Gray on Friday to brainstorm ideas for their unpredictable season ahead.
More than 60 of the state’s 520-plus producers attended the annual meeting, where experts spoke about everything from tap line techniques to tax laws, to co-existing with bird species. There was also a competition for best syrup, judged by the past and present leaders from the Maine Cooperative Extension.
Maple producers told NEWS CENTER Maine, that their entire industry is at the mercy of the weather and stressed the importance of the annual meeting for not only networking purposes but also peer support.
"We all want to commiserate together and try to predict the season," chuckled Alan Greene, who runs his family's eighth-generation maple farm in Sebago. "At the end of the season, we’re all shaking our heads."
"There’s so much value in everything that’s presented, and the camaraderie among maple producers," Debi Hartford, co-owner of Thurston & Peters Sugarhouse in West Newfield, explained. "To be able to sit around and have a conversation about the things that you’re all doing...that are the same."
Jason Lilley, a maple industry educator with the cooperative extension, said attendance only dipped below the typical 70-plus producers at the annual meeting. This year the meeting was moved from the Agricultural Trades Show in Augusta to Gray, due to the weather.
Hartford, who entered her syrup into the competition, wanted to win but was quick to say it was not the most important opinion of her product.
"The best compliment to anyone’s syrup is the customers’ approval and their coming back year after year to purchase your syrup," she said.
Lilley added that Maine's maple industry is estimated to produce $54 million of economic impact on the state.
