Sugarhouse Tours

Sneak Preview of a few of the tour stops...

Hathaway Farm & Corn Maze

Hathaway Farm is a 3^rd generation family farm in Rutland, Vermont. The Osgood family owned it for 5 generations before the Hathaway’s bought it & they were one of the largest maple producers in Vermont at that time making candy, sugar & other products along with their syrup. The farm has been in the Hathaway family since 1942 when Byron & Roxie Hathaway bought the farm & changed it over from a potato farm to a registered Holstein dairy farm, but still continued with maple sugaring. The dairy cows were sold in 1986 & 1987 brought the 1^st beef cows to the farm, but the sugaring stayed. Today Byron & Irene own the farm & along with their son BJ, they raise Hereford & Angus beef along with running a very busy agri-tourism business operating the largest Corn Maze in Vermont. And yes, they are still sugaring! In the last few years, BJ has been taking the reins of the syrup production on the farm.

Hathaway Farm currently has about 1500 taps with 300 of those on buckets & 1200 on pipeline. There are plans to add 1,000+ taps for the 2013 season with vacuum. They use a 5 x 14’ oil fired evaporator with a 5 x 10 flue pan & two 2 x 5 front cross flow syrup pans. Still basically traditional sugar makers, they do embrace new technologies now & again that will make their system more efficient.

Byron, Irene & BJ are very happy to welcome you all to the farm & share their past, present & future plans of their sugar operation with you!

Pond View Acres Sugarhouse: Richard Reed and Son

Dick started sugaring in the late 1970s with two hundred borrowed buckets and two hundred taps on pipeline with a sugar bush in Killington. He has expanded every year since then, growing to an operation with 2300 taps as of the 2012 sugaring season. We are now completely pipeline, with our sugaring bush on Boardman Hill in Center Rutland. We are still using wood fire, but have a reverse osmosis machine and vacuum to help with the production of syrup.

Baird Farm

Maple sugaring has been a family tradition on our 560 acre hillside farm for four generations. Since the dairy cows were sold in 1996 our family has focused on making the maple business as profitable as possible. High production, energy efficiency, mail order, and retail marketing are all very important components of our 5000 tap operation. Our website www.bairdfarm.com has played a key role in our marketing plan for almost 15 years. The sugarhouse has 13,000+ gallons of sap storage, a new room with 2 CDL RO’s, and a 5 x 16 Dominion & Grimm evaporator with a steam-a-way. A vacuum pump house has 2 vacuum pumps, 1 water cooled and 1 oil cooled. All of the sap enters a 600 gal vacuum tank and is pumped underground by 3 deep well pumps to our sugarhouse for processing. In addition to maple, we raise dairy replacement heifers which utilize the barns, pastures and grass cropland on our farm.

Newton

My Great grandfather purchased the farm in 1939 from the bank. The formers owners had been foreclosed on for logging off part of the maple stand. This is the original sugarhouse and it was located about 150 yards closer the bush until the 1960’s when my father moved it to its present location, nearer  a traveled road. At the time, UVM extension was encouraging producers to do this, taking advantage of roadside trade. The operation had been idle for many years. As I was recovering from cancer, I pledged to myself that if I got clear of it, I would make syrup again on the farm. This has been our 4^th year back in operation as a “hobby” operation. We currently have about 150 taps on tubing and 700 on buckets. We boil with wood on a leader 4x12. We gather everything by hand with “volunteer” help, pretty much doing everything as it was done 100 years ago, with the exception of the tractor and the filterpress. Our trees are south and west facing and at low elevation, giving us early runs and sometimes short seasons. We usually make around 100 gallons. I market every drop in small containers and can sell all I make out of my self service “drive up” at the barn. Future plans include more tubing, as our bush is ideally suited for gravity drop right to the sugarhouse. A steam hood for the back pans, and a fan system to speed up boiling, as our house is down in a hole, and heavy air frequently slows us down. Modernization is slow, due to our low production, but eventually, the goal is to make it much more of a one man operation when it runs.

Sugar & Spice

We’ve brought together, for you and your family to enjoy, some of the traditions of Vermont. In addition to watching our maple syrup, candies and ice cream being made, we also display and sell contemporary Vermont crafts and gifts.
The heart of Sugar & Spice is our two-story open gallery. Stand on the second level and watch the syrup being made below. You’re invited to walk down into our sugaring area and get a close-up look. You can even draw off some syrup to bring back up to pour on your pancakes, waffles or French toast!
Getting your own hot syrup is a special thrill- the kids will love it!
Adjacent to Sugar & Spice is our own Vermont forest and sugar bush. We welcome you to enjoy it- go for a walk, a picnic, or visit Old John’s Rock.