BRIDGEWATER, Maine — The gentle, sweet smell of cotton candy greets you as it wafts through the crisp spring air. Slender blue tubing, in a seemingly endless network, coils around tall Maple trees and creates what looks like a never-ending game of Cat’s Cradle as it wends its way across 80 snow-covered acres. The maze of trees with their taps, tubes and buildings are part of a labor-intensive process to make “Grade A” maple syrup and its products at Bradbury Maple Farms.
Each year in late March, the state’s maple producers throw open the doors to their sugarhouses for the public to see demonstrations, take tours and taste products. Last Saturday, visitors from one end of Aroostook County to the other and as far away as Waterbury, Conn. and Billings, Mont. signed the guest book as gales of children’s laughter could be heard outside while making taffy on the snow.
Amy Barker of Washburn and her family said: “We had a great time.” Jorja Maynard and big brother Jackson almost simultaneously said the best part of the trip from Ft. Fairfield was: “Candy!” Brennan Brewer with daughters Megan and Hailey said he visits every year from Mars Hill to buy maple syrup, cotton candy and maple cream. Heather Hale said the taffy on the snow was “delicious.”
Charlene Bradbury, co-owner with her husband and family, said southern Maine maple producers got a headstart the previous weekend — Maine Maple Sunday — because it was warm enough for the sap to run. “We’re anticipating a good year. We like it to be 40 degrees or better during the day and around 20s at night.” Maine ranks just behind Vermont and New York in the country’s multi-million dollar maple syrup industry with 215,000 gallons of the versatile sweetener that cooks use to compliment and transform a variety of foods.
The Bradburys produce several hundred gallons of their prized maple syrup each year for bottling and other products including: barrel or moose-shaped suckers, jelly, cotton candy, maple cream (Charlene’s favorite), maple sugar and maple candy. They say their products are selling quickly through the open houses and through mail orders. Although there is no retail component, eventually, the products may become available in local stores.
This year is especially significant for the family-owned Bradbury operation as they celebrate their 25th anniversary. But, the property actually dates back 75 years in the family history when the maple syrup operation only ran for a couple of years.
By 1980, it was up for sale and Boyd Bradbury, Charlene’s husband, bought the woodlot from his grandfather. He eventually found and refurbished the evaporator used by his great grandparents to reduce sap to syrup. Twenty five years ago, he and his family went into the syrup-making business and today they have 3,000 taps on their trees.
Boyd explained that water has to be boiled off to make syrup, adding that concentrated sap goes through a number of processes to remove water and become syrup. He monitors and calibrates the temperatures or “it won’t keep. It’ll be concentrated sap.” “It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup,” says Charlene of their Grade A dark amber quality product.
Bradbury’s, just off U.S. 1 at 202 BootFoot Rd., continues its open houses the next two weekends, April 5-6 and 12-13, from 1-5 p.m. They give group and special school tours and demonstrations.
To arrange a tour or for more information call: 429-8306 or 399-1979.
