The Franklin County Fair, seen from the top of a ferris wheel in 2018, sprawls out across the Malone fairgrounds, with people, rides, games and food abundant. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

MALONE — The Franklin County Fairgrounds drew a crowd to the village Friday and Saturday for the fair’s opening days. Admission was free both days.

People packed the midway enjoying fair food and amusement rides in the weekend heat.

Friday night was a popular time for desserts, especially at the St. Maple booth near the East Main Street entrance to the fairgrounds.

“I was surprised how busy we got last night,” Scott St. Mary said. “It was a lot better than we expected. We had two people who were going to come in and help us and I texted them at 4 and told them don’t worry about it we are really slow, and then we got really busy for the rest of the night.”

St. Mary said it seemed like more people were out and about on the fairgrounds for opening night than in past years.

“Absolutely, it was busier. Maybe it was the weather,” St. Mary said. “Usually our opening day, the free day, sometimes it is not even worth us being here, but last night was a lot better.”

St. Mary’s maple farm, Cedar Brook Farms, is at the end of Limekiln Road in Malone. The sugarhouse has been at its current location for six years, and the farm has been making syrup for about 15 years.

“We do a lot of confections with our sugar business, we’ve just kind of added on to it over the years,” St. Mary said. “We have maple cotton candy, milkshakes, sugar candies, maple peanut butter, hard candies, lollipops. We also do four or five different maple donuts, with different cheesecake toppings.”

Mini donut sundaes are usually a popular item at the stand during fair week, he said.

“That’s probably our biggest seller,” St. Mary said. “We sell a lot of those.”

St. Mary said he has been selling maple products at the fair for at least 10 years.

“It started off as an association a bunch of members got together to do this — maple producers, some people sold the businesses, other people moved away. There were only a couple members left so I ended up buying them out,” St. Mary said.

He said his favorite part of fair week is sharing new items with customers.

“I kind of like to see familiar faces, people who come in every year, and then see the expressions on everybody’s faces when they try our new products,” St. Mary said. “Whether it’s the mini donuts with cheesecake toppings or a mini donut sundae with bacon on it.”