Maine Maple Weekend

Being a huge Maine lover and a huge maple lover, I have always wanted to participate in Maine Maple Weekend.  For whatever reason, we've never made it happen until this year.  What a super time!

I did a lot of research (typical for me, I OVER-research everything) before we went, looking for the perfect farm to visit.  My goal was to balance visiting an authentic sugar shack with finding some fun things to keep the girls happy.  Chase Farms was the perfect place for our family to visit!

Chase Farms is an easy ride from the Boston area, and near everything we love on Maine's beautiful southern coast.  The farm stand itself and sugar shack are pristine and very visually pleasing.  I felt good about eating food from their operation.

Given the super cold winter, we were very excited to see that they were boiling sap for maple syrup.  We each had a "shot" of warm maple syrup right from the evaporator.  Well, actually, Emmie ended up with 4 shots of warm maple syrup right from the evaporator.  She LOVES her maple syrup!  We also had samples of maple cream which was delectable, and free servings of freshly popped popcorn.

Warm maple syrup.

The website indicated that there would be hay rides, although we did not see any happening during our visit.  Which was actually fine with us because we felt that there were plenty of other interesting things going on for the girls.  Both girls participated in the free face painting, but the place where we actually spent most of our time was in the barn.

Being the "city folk" that we are, of course the girls walked into the barn and yelled, "PEEE-YOU!" about 10 times, embarrassingly loud.  In their defense, it didn't exactly melt my mascara, but it was rather stinky.  You get used to it, especially as you see the super cool animals and adorable baby pigs living in the barn.  There were workhorses, cows, and pigs.  I kept saying to Patrick, "Is it me, or are these animals HUGE!?!??!"  They were really quite impressive and kept the girls interested for a very long time.  Of course the baby pigs were the favorite of everyone.  All of the workers were friendly and patient, especially when Emmie was DYING to pet the horse, Bill, but was still a little shy about it.

Their "PEEEE-YOUS" turned to smiles once they saw all of the animals.

Rosie checking out the baby pigs.  She kept saying, "Oink, oink!"

Emmie petting Bill the horse.  She said next time she wants to ride him.
We told her it might be better if she started off on a slightly smaller horse...

They look like little ranch hands.

After all of the barn fun we warmed up in the sugar house and had some amazing maple syrup cotton candy.  It was being freshly made and was a HUGE serving.  Turns out, Emmie loves cotton candy.  Rosie, not so much.

We bought some delicious maple goods to remind us of our great visit to this super cool farm and were on our way.  We left smiling and super happy that the sun had come out (it was snowing at the beginning of our visit) and that we visited this great family farm.  All in all, we would highly recommend visiting this farm, whether it be for Maine Maple Weekend or any weekend.  The people were nice, their treats were delicious, and it was a beautifully kept place.

As we headed to Ogunquit, we noticed that Chase Farms actually has a farm stand right on Route 1.  We've probably driven by it about 1,000 times and never stopped...this summer, we definitely will be sure to support this local business.

After our great time "down on the farm" (yes, we love country music), we headed to one of our favorite places on the coast of Maine, Ogunquit and Perkins Cove.  It was so lovely out (ie, 45 degrees...I guess we are true New Englanders) that we were able to get some delicious coffee at one of our favorite spots, Breaking New Grounds Coffee, and sit outside on their adirondack chairs.  The house blend was perfect, and the view of the cold Atlantic waves crashing on the rocky Maine coast was beautiful.

Perkins Cove coffee shop.

Perkins Cove.

Perkins Cove footbridge.

Our final stop on our perfect Maine daytrip was to Bread and Roses Bakery on Maine street in Ogunquit.  We had a huge, warm chocolate chip cookie and a whoopie pie.  While the whoopie pie might not have been quite as fresh as during the busier summer months, the cookie was soft and gooey and sweet.  You can just tell they used great ingredients.  Now, even though I didn't think the whoopie pie was as good as they are in July, that's not to say that we didn't eat every last morsel of it.

We sat outside and enjoyed the last of the "warm" weather for I guess another week, chatting up some locals and eating our treats.  It was a perfect end to a sugary, smelly, happy, and amazingly memorable day with the girls.  Well, isn't every day a sugary, smelly, happy, and amazingly memorable day with the girls?  Yes, I think so.