Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Steam rises from vents as Terry Deering of Gorham brings wood into the sugarhouse and Scott Dunn boils sap at Dunn Family Maple in Buxton. Buy this Photo

Photo by Gregory Rec

Maple trees and the sun are refracted in a drip of maple sap running into a bucket at Harris Farm in Dayton. The fourth Sunday of March is traditionally Maine Maple Sunday. This year the 38th annual event will have adjusted hours and options because of the coronavirus pandemic. Buy this Photo

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Eric Robinson looks up to make sure the sap is being pumped through the lines to the sugar shack in North Yarmouth while Patti Robinson holds the pump in the barrel filled with sap. The couple started Robinson Family Maple as a business last year, but Eric has been producing maple syrup as a hobby for over a decade. Buy this Photo

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Patti Robinson chops wood for their sugar shack wood stove while her husband, Eric Robinson, boils inside. Buy this Photo

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Patti Robinson checks to make sure the sap is being pumped up from a collection point. On Thursday they pumped about 200 gallons of sap, which was collected in the previous 24 hours. Buy this Photo

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Sap drips out into a collection barrel on Eric and Patti Robinson’s property in North Yarmouth. The couple pumps the sap up to their sugar shack every afternoon when the sap is running. Buy this Photo

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Photo by Brianna Soukup

Eric Robinson checks to see how much sap they pumped up from their collection points. The nighttime temperature must drop below freezing and daytime temperature must reach 40-50 degrees for sap to flow. Buy this Photo

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Smoke rises from Eric and Patti Robinson’s sugar shack in North Yarmouth. Buy this Photo

Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Sap flows from a releaser into a storage tank at Dunn Family Maple in Buxton. Buy this Photo

Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Scott Dunn removes a tube from a sap container after gathering sap from a nearby lot that he will bring back to the sugarhouse. The Dunn family has been producing maple syrup for five generations. Buy this Photo

Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Scott Dunn tests the sugar content of sap with a hydrometer inside the sugarhouse at Dunn Family Maple in Buxton. Buy this Photo

Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Terry Deering of Gorham loads wood into the firebox as Terry and Scott Dunn boil sap in the sugarhouse. Buy this Photo

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Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Scott Dunn samples maple syrup while boiling sap. Most maples produce 5 to 15 gallons of sap per season. It takes roughly 40 gallons of sugar maple sap to produce a gallon of syrup. Buy this Photo

Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Scott Dunn pours maple syrup into a finisher after it went through the evaporator. Buy this Photo

Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Steam rises from the sugarhouse at Dunn Family Maple. Buy this Photo[

Photo by Gregory Rec

Keith Harris checks on the density of maple syrup boiling in an evaporator in the sugarhouse at Harris Farm in Dayton. Buy this Photo

Photo by Gregory Rec

Sunlight illuminates steam rising from an evaporator at the Harris Farm sugarhouse. In southern Maine, the syrup season usually lasts until the first or second week of April. Buy this Photo

Photo by Gregory Rec

Keith Harris checks on maple sap boiling in an evaporator. Maine is typically the third largest producer of maple syrup in the U.S., following Vermont, in first place, and New York. Buy this Photo

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Photo by Gregory Rec

Maple syrup flows from an evaporator through a valve into a pail at the Harris Farm sugarhouse. Buy this Photo[

Photo by Gregory Rec

Frank Ferrucci loads firewood into a bin at his sugarhouse at Maple Moon Farm in Lebanon. Buy this Photo

Photo by Gregory Rec

Frank Ferrucci places a hydrometer into maple syrup. The hydrometer, which measures the density of the weight of the maple syrup displaced by the instrument, is a method used to decide when sap syrup is ready to be removed from the evaporator. If the syrup is near the red line of the hydrometer, the syrup is at the right density. Buy this Photo

Photo by Gregory Rec

Frank Ferrucci pours maple syrup into a filter on top of a large rectangular pan at Maple Moon Farm. Buy this Photo

Photo by Gregory Rec

Sap from a maple tree drips into a bucket at Maple Moon Farm. As southern Maine’s syrup-producing season closes down, northern Maine’s is ramping up. Northern Maine’s season begins in mid-March and ends in early to mid-May. Most of Maine’s maple syrup is produced in Somerset County and in the Golden Road area. Buy this Photo

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