Our Family
Between the two of us we have a combined 33 years in the Military and our daughter Eira loves to help around the farm as she learns valuable life lessons.
Summit Maple Farm is located in the foothills of the western slopes of the Green Mountains. Our syrup is produced in small batches over a woodfired evaporator. The sap is collected right on our hilltop property from a sugarbush that is bird friendly certified by Audubon Vermont.
We are a family run farm, both Full time Army National Guard Soldiers. We have an 800 tap sugarbush on our property and work tirelessly all spring to produce the best tasting maple syrup that we can offer while enhancing the beauty and health of our forest. We hope you enjoy the taste of Vermont.
from our family to yours.
Mike, Jess and Eira
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Between the two of us we have a combined 33 years in the Military and our daughter Eira loves to help around the farm as she learns valuable life lessons.
In our sugarhouse we have focused on efficiency. We boil on a 2.5’x8’ CDL intens-o-fire which uses gasification combustion to completely burn all fuel from our firewood. All of our firewood comes from our property. We also use a Lapierre reverse osmosis machine to remove most of the water from the maple sap. This process keeps our sugarhouse running efficiently, using only 1 cord of firewood for every 100 gallons of syrup produced.
The trees where our sap comes from are located right on our hilltop property in Fairfax, Vermont. Here in Vermont we call it a sugarbush. Our sugarbush is not only managed under organic practices, it is also certified bird friendly by Vermont Audubon, to ensure there is a healthy habitat for song birds.
Many people ask what is organic syrup anyway? Isn’t all syrup organic? Well, I’m glad you asked. our syrup is certified organic by Vermont Organic Farmers.
-the first step of our process started 3 years ago when our friends at Greenleaf Forestry walked our land and did a stand analysis and soil assessment along side Vermont Natural Resources Conservation Service. This helped develop a plan to ethically and sustainably manage our land to enhance wildlife habitat while also enhancing the long term health of our maple stand. After this was done our land was logged in accordance with our hired forester and our county forester, this type of logging is referred to as a crop release. Certain ideal maple trees were selected and other inferior trees surrounding them were harvested for firewood. This prevents disease and infestations of pests. The logging was conducted during the dry season to reduce soil erosion and with proper equipment to minimize tree damage.
The next phase of ensuring our syrup is certified organic is the installation of our sap lines. All material used in the process is food grade, including sap tanks. The sap lines must be installed in such a way to ensure the long term health of the trees. A tree must be 10” diameter to get one tap and when trees are used to support the mainlines the tree needs to be protected from damage by the support wire. When it is time to tap trees taps are placed at least 6” both laterally and horizontally from the last tap hole. We only use 5/16” taps that go less then 2” into the tree.
The next phase of organic syrup involves the storage of and processing of sap into pure Vermont Organic Maple Syrup. All sap must be stored in stainless steel sap tanks or FDA approved food grade plastic tanks with covers. It then must be filtered and boiled as fresh as possible. The boiling of sap produces an enormous amount of foam and without the use of a defoamer the syrup would spill over the side of the evaporator. Organic syrup requires the use of organic defoamer agents. We use USDA certified organic sunflower oil. Most sugar makers don’t know what is in their defoamer, which is a sythetic chemical based agent. The syrup is then drawn off the evaporator at 66% sugar, and immediately filtered through food grade filter aid then quickly packed, hot in a clean stainless barrel. Where it awaits the next phase of canning.
Returns
Our policy lasts 30 days. If 30 days have gone by since your purchase, unfortunately we can’t offer you a refund or exchange.
To be eligible for a return, your item must be unused and in the same condition that you received it. It must also be in the original packaging.
Additional non-returnable items:
- Gift cards
To complete your return, we require a receipt or proof of purchase.
There are certain situations where only partial refunds are granted (if applicable)
- Any item that is returned more than 30 days after delivery