WELLS, Maine — A local couple’s vision of their farm becoming a year-round attraction with something for every season is taking a leap forward with their first-ever participation in a beloved Maine springtime tradition.

Ryan Liberty and Colleen Bovaird-Liberty will open Crooked Brook Farm, their acreage at 210 Meetinghouse Road, to sweet-treat seekers looking to add a new spot to their usual rounds during Maine Maple Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, March 22 and 23.

That weekend, the Libertys will serve and sell samples of their maple syrup, made on site, and will host local bakers who will bring along their tasty goods – some of which no doubt will go good with the Libertys’ syrup.

“I’ve got one lady who focuses on bread and rolls and pies,” Ryan said. “I’ve got another one that does pickles, jellies, and jams, and a third one with an emphasis on cookies and cakes. We’re covering the gamut.”

The Libertys recently finished converting a structure on their property into a sugar house, complete with all the mechanisms needed to produce maple syrup and space for visitors to gather and socialize while enjoying samples and baked goods.

For the couple, the foray into commercial maple syrup production is a springtime addition to the winter attraction of the Christmas tree farm they opened a couple of holiday seasons ago.

And with that new sugar house, the Libertys are just getting started: Ryan also said he is beekeeping on-site and producing honey as a summertime treat and is planning to start a fall-friendly apple orchard in the front yard of the new home they are building on the property.

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While starting a tree farm was a new adventure for Ryan, who is in his 50s and describes himself as entrepreneurial, producing maple syrup is a hobby of his dating back to his years as a young adult. He said he has fond memories of making maple syrup in a turkey cooker with his son when he was young.

Next to the sugar house, Ryan has hung old-fashioned buckets beneath the taps of a few maple trees. He said he draws some sap from those trees but wanted to put those buckets there for nostalgic effect.

Indeed, the Libertys’ true method of collecting sap for syrup involves an elaborate system of green tubes strewn throughout many tapped trees that are on your right as you first arrive at the farm. The network all feeds into a tank that, when full, Ryan loads into the back of his truck and brings over to the sugar house for production.

For decades, Maine Maple Weekend has been a popular, late-March tradition in Maine, with syrup producers throughout the state welcoming visitors to their farms to enjoy all kinds of syrup-related treats and to see how the sweet topping is made.

In addition to Crooked Brook Farms, several other farms in the York County Coast Star coverage area will join the festivities, according to the Maine Maple Producers Association. These include Chase Farms on North Berwick Road in Wells and Douston Maple and Honey on Old Alfred Road in Arundel. For a list of all participants and other details, please visit the association’s official website.

Ryan said he’s excited to join the Maine Maple Weekend fun. For someone who has spent the bulk of his career in the energy industry, he never thought he’d become a farmer one day, but now that he is, he loves it.

You can tell by the way he surveys his rows of growing Christmas trees, explains the process of maple sugaring, shares his vision for the apple orchard, and gamely trudges through the thick, squishy mud created by the heavy rains the night before.

“It’s a healthy place to be,” he said. “I’ve become a farmer. I don’t know how exactly, and when exactly, it happened, but it has happened, and I’m embracing it.”

The farm, Ryan said, is his “Zen place,” somewhere he can be where the sun shines, the birds chirp, and there are no emails or ringing phones in sight.

And somewhere, he and Colleen invite you to visit next weekend as you make your Maine Maple Weekend rounds.

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