Via Community News Service, a VTSU-Castleton internship, for Lakes Region Living
POULTNEY — Poultney residents celebrated maple season at the town’s annual MapleFest on March 21-22.
Although the weather was rainy and cool, people came out to enjoy various events throughout Main Street and East Poultney – including vendors, horse-drawn wagon rides, kids’ activities, and maple syrup demonstrations at the local sugar houses.
The event was organized by the Poultney Downtown Revitalization Committee and is proudly hosted by more than a dozen nonprofit organizations, making it free of charge to the community.
Vendors were scattered throughout Poultney, offering baked goods, maple products, and pizza. Bobbi Field, new owner of Third Place Pizzeria in Castleton, ran a stand in front of Poultney Cannabis Supply on Main Street, owned by his son, Christian Poczobut. Together they provided pizza slices and baked goods for passersby, including apple bacon and maple drizzle pizza slices.
Poczobut said he was excited to have the stand in front of his business, as it not only drew customers to the dispensary, but to Third Place as well. He added that the cold weather made for a slow start, but business picked up later in the day.
Harley Adams and her mother Deborah Lee Adams, of Gran-Debra Farms, occupied the front of Toad’s Burger Bar, also on Main Street, with baby goats for the public to enjoy.
“Normally we have fudge and soap and such, but we figured, today, we were just focusing on the babies,” Harley Adams said.
She added that her father makes maple syrup, which was available to purchase at the stand.
“My dad does the syrup and everything like that,” she said. “We’ve got the sugar shack right in the barnyard.”
Jessica Dingman, mother of a student at Poultney Grade School, ran a stand on the opposite end of Main Street, raising money for the sixth-grade’s final class trip this year. She said her stand saw a lot of action.
“We had mounds of food on this table when we started, and people are really showing up from our posts and from just the MapleFest activities,” Dingman said. “We have so many parents contribute.”
Her daughter and some of the other sixth graders helped man the stand but left periodically to warm themselves in the library.
Art educator Carol Sterling said she helped organize the wagon rides around East Poultney Green, where there were also soups and sausages being sold.
“The Chamber and the Rotary (are) sponsoring the horse and wagon rides this year,” she said. “They used to do it pre-COVID, and then it stopped, and it got resurrected last year.”
Aaron Kerber of the Poultney Fire Department said they were mainly there for outreach.
“I was here for the kids,” he said. “We’re actually trying to see if we can get some memberships.”
He said he was there as part of the community for MapleFest, but he also wanted to be there for the kids to go through the trucks.
Adrian Watkins, who farms lambs at Bryn Cariad Farm in Poultney, said he specially prepared himself for this year’s MapleFest. He said the event helps his farm from a business standpoint.
“If anyone wants to come see the lambs, MapleFest is a prime example,” he said. “We actually lambed specifically early this year so that we would have lambs for MapleFest.”