Maine products, crafts wow crowds at Big E

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Dozens of some of the best products, crafts and services that Maine has to offer were wowing the crowds over the past 17 days at the Eastern States Exposition.

With an annual visitation of a million people, Eastern States, known as The Big E, became a golden opportunity for Maine craftsmen to provide New Englanders with a taste, feel and smell of home.

Scattered throughout the 175-acre fair were booths proudly displaying signs of various Maine hometowns. Diane Dermott has had a country store-style booth at the fair for the past 11 years. Her most frequently asked question: “How’s life in Bah Hahbah?”

“I’m really getting tired of that,” she laughed. She added, however, that business was booming. “It’s been a little down because of the crisis [in New York], but we’ll definitely be back next year.”

The Maine Bucket Co. of Lewiston has had a booth at the fair for 15 years. Owners Doug and Susan Boyd hired a relative, Shawn Boyd of Montreal, to run the booth for them.

“We weren’t sure we were coming back this year,” said Shawn Boyd, “because of the events in New York City.” He said that although he thought attendance might have been lower, sales figures were at the same level as last year’s.

“There are lots of people here, lots of interest,” he said.

Paula and Stephen Reynolds were first-time exhibitors at the fair, selling Paula’s handmade dolls and snowmen by the gross. “It has been very, very good,” she said. “We’ve been able to keep up with it, barely,” she added, waving her arms around the half-empty booth.

“I’ve been working the whole time I’ve been here,” she said. A sewing machine stood in the corner and Paula spent Saturday afternoon hand-stitching snowmen’s caps.

It was a similar story inside the Maine building on The Big E’s Avenue of States. To try to help pay for the massive renovations done to the building this summer, the state of Maine for the first time allowed commercial vendors inside the building.

While the Maine potato was definitely the hottest seller (one every five seconds,) flags, Raye’s mustard, fleece mittens, blueberry muffins and maple syrup were flying off the shelves.

The maple syrup display of Bob Moore of Dover-Foxcroft drew considerable attention. In the corner he had a simulated campfire and a sugaring kettle to illustrate the cooking process. Next to that was a sugar maple, complete with a tap dripping “sap” into a bucket. “It’s really an [intravenous fluid] bag hiding behind the wall,” he laughed.

“Our products have been very well received,” he said.

In fact, the lure and mystique of Maine were quite a draw at the back of the building, where the Maine Tourism Association counter was adrift in a sea of people seeking information about travel. Executive Director Vaughn Stinson estimated that tourism workers passed out more than 50,000 copies of Maine maps during the 17-day fair.

“Our camping guides are just flying off the counter,” said Stinson.

Questions and requests for information ran from the silly (“How old does a deer have to be before it becomes a moose?”) to the critical (“I got stopped for speeding in Maine last year.”)

“But most people said they had a good experience in Maine and want to return again,” said Stinson.

It is the Maine experience they are looking for, he said. “We can’t impress them with our food or lodging – they have that here in southern New England. Their experience is based on the good, caring Maine people.”

Last year, out-of-state overnight visitors spent $2.1 billion in Maine.

Part of that Maine experience, said Stinson, is the safe atmosphere visitors feel. “We have been getting a lot of requests about skiing in Maine. Many people who would have flown out west to ski now don’t want to fly in the wake of the New York disaster,” he said. “Maine represents a safe and secure spot for people.”