Organic Maple Syrup: Pure and Real
There are few products more connected to the wild landscape of America than pure maple syrup. This minimally processed sweetener is harvested from the native forest of the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada – there are only 17 states and Canadian provinces where it’s made during a narrow six to eight week period in […]
Maple Producer Spotlight: Tiffany Brothers
The Tiffany BrothersEnosburg Falls, Vermont The Tiffany brothers don’t mince words when it comes to maple syrup. They love maple syrup on ice cream, over pancakes, and in their everyday cooking. They love being in the woods every day, and they love sugaring. They intend to keep doing exactly that. Dave, Jim and Mike are […]
Marvin’s Country Store: Celebrating 30 Years in 2016
In 1986, David and Lucy Marvin purchased a small building in the Village of Johnson, next to the Johnson Woolen Mill. With a desire to open doors in time for the fall rush, they quickly made modifications to the space. The building, rich in history as a former schoolhouse and blacksmith shop, was transformed into […]
Maple Producer Spotlight: Meet Rick Mayotte
Rick MayotteEast Fairfield, Vermont A small, thoughtfully designed space, Rick Mayotte’s sugarhouse is set up for high syrup production. He’s running over 50,000 taps across beautiful land in Fairfield, Vermont, and he hopes to increase his production in the coming year. He grins as he recounts the story of building this new facility, and says […]
Maple Syrup: The Perfect Sweetener For Coffee or Tea
Here in the great state of Vermont, if you don’t take your coffee black, you take it with pure maple syrup. Sweetening coffee and tea with pure maple is a growing trend. Here are 5 reasons why: Pure maple syrup dissolves easily in hot and cold beverages, so you’re never left with a pile of […]
Maple Producer Spotlight: Gene and Dan Branon
Gene and Dan BranonFairfield, Vermont When asked what he’d say to someone who considers buying his pure maple syrup, Gene Branon answers immediately, “I’d tell them that there’s a lot of hard work and pride put into this product. It’s guaranteed to be as good as it can be. Nothing is skimped on. There’s a […]
Maple Producer Spotlight: Meet Jeff Corey
Jeff CoreyFairfax, Vermont Jeff stands confidently next to his sugarhouse, his faithful black lab at his side. “So there I was,” he says, “25 or 26 years old, broke, but this was what I wanted to do. And I knew if I didn’t have the trees I wasn’t going to be sugaring.” You can sense […]
Our Secret To Sweet Success? Meet The Sugar Makers
We work with over 350 sugar makers to supply maple syrup to our operation. Each one of these farmers shares a vision of forest stewardship and commitment to quality that is similar to the one that has driven our work for decades. These great folks from across Vermont, and from maple-producing regions have a story. […]
Creamtop? Whole Fat? Greek? All Our Favorite Yogurts Are Made With Maple
Do you have a favorite yogurt? Greek? Creamtop? Blended? Fruit on the bottom? Whipped? Whole Fat? Low Fat? Skyr? We do…maple. Whether it’s maple flavored or simply sweetened with maple we can’t think of a better combination for a quick snack or breakfast on the go. It’s a natural pairing. Yogurt makers like Brown Cow, […]
2016 IFT Show: Booth #3816
Visit us at the annual IFT Show in Chicago and discover the unique and versatile nature of maple, nature’s healthiest sweetener. The IFT 2016 show runs from Sunday, July 17th through Tuesday, July 19th at the McCormick Center. Hope to see you there!
Vermont Maple Trees Under Attack
If you live in Vermont, you may recognize this fuzzy little creature, known as the Forest Tent Caterpillar. This North American native insect is found throughout most of the United States and Canada, mostly in the eastern regions wherever hardwoods can be found, where they favor sugar maples, ash and red oak trees. A Forest […]
2016 Summer Fancy Food Show: Booth #643
Visit us at the annual Summer Fancy Food Show in NYC to find some pure goodness from the heart of Vermont! Discover innovative packaging that delivers value to pure maple syrup lovers, specialty glass that highlights the natural beauty of pure maple syrup, and a selection of products including pure maple candy, maple drops, granulated […]
Maple Syrup Season 2016: It’s A Wrap!
Great is the only word to describe the 2016 crop. We produced the most syrup ever at our farm – both on a total number of gallons and pounds per tap! The season started early with our first boil in February. This early run gave us a chance to test all the equipment and fix […]
Maple Syrup Season 2016: The Sap Goes On
The weather in Vermont gave us quite the variety this week. We saw warmer and cooler temps, the sun, rain and even snow! The sap flow slowed for a few days, which gave us a chance to change out the back pan. By Thursday night, the sap had cleared up and was running at 1,000 […]
Maple Syrup Season 2016: Weather Makes For A Good Sugaring Season
It is peak maple sugar season and despite the unusual weather, it seems to be a good year at the farm for sugar making! On Wednesday the sap ran very well and we started to fill the tanks up again. The upper sections of the farm really started to run and by Thursday morning we […]
Maple Syrup Season 2016: Another Busy Week At the Farm
On Tuesday we finished boiling the last of the sap from the weekend. The sap was running well and all four of the 3,000 tanks were still full of sap. The filter press needed to be changed often and the ROs started to slow down since they were processing sap constantly. ROs or reverse osmosis, […]
Maple Syrup Season 2016: The Steam Keeps Rising
The sap started to run in the late afternoon on Saturday and slowed down during the night. On Sunday we went back to trying not to over flow the tanks and make sure we had enough storage, to keeping the RO processing raw sap and feeding the evaporator concentrate. The sap ran at over 2,000 […]
March Is Maple Month
Did you know that March is Maple Month? find your sweet spot at a maple sugarhouse, sample some of the delicious maple products, and learn more about this healthy, versatile, all-natural ingredient! Visit Maple Month for more information.
Maple Syrup Season 2016: A Sweet Surprise
The weather forecast may have been looking grim, but little did we know we were in for a sweet surprise this past weekend. Mother Nature came through and she was a generous mood! The sap ran long and hard, in a way that we have not seen in many years. The sap started to run […]
Maple Syrup Season 2016: Hello Warm Weather
On Wednesday we finished filling drum 26. Today, the temperature was 37 degrees and we are all anxiously waiting for a good freeze to give the trees another recharge. Filter press changes and a leaking seal on the high pressure pump on the RO slowed things down. We have filled 38 drums as of today. […]
Maple Syrup Season 2016: The Sap Is Flowing
As we said goodbye to February, the sap was running, but not enough to turn on the Reverse Osmosis (RO) or boil. In the past, the sap flows have showed at night, but never stopped. Each day we seemed to collect less sap. Thankfully Mother Nature must have overheard our discontent, because the sap has […]
And, So It Begins: Maple Syrup Season 2016
It maybe the earliest boil on record for us – February 6th. With good conditions for sap flows – the sap ran last week Wednesday and Thursday. With a few tweaks to our systems on Friday we boiled on Saturday. We filled four drums and are three quarters full on drum number five. Getting around […]
Maple: 100 Sweet and Savory Recipes
We love cooking with maple. We use it nearly every day – and sometimes in recipes you wouldn’t expect. Every once and a while though we need a bit of inspiration, and that’s when we look to the cookbook shelf. Katie’s book Maple: 100 Sweet and Savory Recipes Featuring Pure Maple Syrup has fast and […]
Eyes On The Land
Butternut Mountain Farm’s home farm was selected as one of 15 conserved Vermont properties to be featured in the Vermont Land Trust’s Eyes on Land exhibition at Shelburne Museum. The project explores how our landscape can be viewed and experienced through a variety of artistic lenses. In their announcement of the project the Vermont Land […]
Fast Growing Beer Brewing Marketplace Taps Into Maple
From Maine to Michigan and beyond, brews made with maple are increasing in popularity. What was once field of few has blossomed into a broad range of styles and approaches to using an ingredient more commonly associated with breakfast than making an alcoholic beverage. The list of breweries that have or have had a maple […]
2015 Maple Sugaring: Season Wrap-Up
The season ended on drum number 129 for us. We made a little over 3lbs per tap – far from a record breaking crop – average in historical terms and disappointing compared to the record seasons of the past several years. Having the season squeezed into a short 3 weeks has its challenges. Long days […]
2015 Maple Sugaring: Sun, Sap, Syrup
With 64 drums in the last week we’ve more than doubled our crop. As of last night we’ve filled drum #95. It’s still a far cry from a full crop for us. On 17,000 taps we consider a crop to be about 200 drums. We tend to talk about the season in terms of how […]
Grade Change Tool Kits Are Here!
We understand that there’s a lot to transitioning to a new classification system for pure maple syrup. To make navigating the change easier we’ve built a grade change tool kit.
2015 Maple Sugaring: Getting Into The Flow of Things…
We finished the weekend with Barrel number 29 which is about 15% of a crop for us in an average year. The sap did not run much Saturday or Sunday. We’re optimistic that the next couple of days will bring some excellent sugaring weather. On Friday and Saturday we had issues with the burner on […]
2015 Maple Sugaring: How’s Your Sugar Content?
The story of this sugaring season may come down to the sugar content of the coming sap flows. Why you ask? Because there is a direct correlation between how much sap it takes to make a gallon syrup and the sugar content of the sap from which it’s being made. The volume of sap required […]
2015 Maple Sugaring: And The Season Begins
It’s nice to know we’ve started. We had our first run on Wednesday and our first boil on Friday. We made a nice flavored Amber Color Syrup with Rich Taste. As with most years, there was some trouble-shooting to do to get things in the sugar house up and running smoothly. “We added a vacuum […]
2015 Maple Sugaring: Into The Woods
With deep snow and extremely cold temperatures its taken us a bit longer than normal to wrap up tapping. Thankfully, Mother Nature has given us a bit of a reprieve and allowed us to finish all of our work before the sap starts to follow. “The fluffy snow hasn’t created any pack in the woods […]
It’s Official: USDA Revises Maple Syrup Grading Standards
USA grading standards for maple syrup have been revised to match international standards, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday, January 29. The rule changes comes in response to a petition from the International Maple Syrup Institute, saying the different grading systems in different states made it confusing to consumers. The new standards make all […]
Winter Fancy Food: Butternut Mountain Farm #711
Visit us at the annual Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco to find some pure goodness from Vermont. Discover innovative new packaging that delivers value to pure maple syrup lovers, specialty glass that highlights the natural beauty of pure maple syrup, and a selection of products including pure maple candy, maple drops, granulated maple […]
Canada Approves Maple Syrup Grade Change
On December 16th, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced that the Canadian Maple Products Regulations have been amended. The changes harmonize the definition and grading system in Canada and the United States.
American Food Roots Project
Here at Butternut Mountain Farm we are continually looking to the past to inform future decisions around our maple production, products and distribution. To us, looking back at history and seeing where we are today as a family, farm and business is utterly fascinating. Therefore, when the opportunity arose to sponsor the American Food Roots […]
Maple Sugar Trend and Recipes
After years of playing second fiddle to its big brother, maple syrup, granulated maple sugar has finally been making some sweet buzz of its own in the trendy food world. In recent months big name food magazines such as Gourmet Traveler, Saveur and Food and Wine have all developed recipes that specifically highlight maple sugar […]
Giving Thanks
We in the agriculture business find ourselves counting our blessings on a daily basis – it just comes naturally with the job. Having a day to pause, reflect and give thanks to the many people that make our world go round is a favorite time of year for us. At Butternut Mountain Farm, we are […]
In Celebration of Being a Vermont Family Business
In October, the Marvin Family was honored to be one of the recipients of the University of Vermont’s Multi-Generational Family Business Award. The award recognizes companies for the financial success of the company, governance structures, contributions to the community and industry, and demonstrated innovative business practices or strategies. At Butternut Mountain Farm there’s a strong […]
The Buzz on Maple Water
Maple Water – What’s all the Buzz? Headlines abound “‘Maple Water’ Producers Hoping for Sweet Smell of Success,” “Should You Dive into the New Wave of Water?” “Ask the Doctor: Benefits of Plant Based Water”. Q: So, what’s maple water? A: As the name suggests, maple water, is sap collected from maple trees. It’s the […]
A Fond Farewell to Reds, Oranges and Yellows
The silver lining to an unusually dry and warm fall is spectacular foliage-and how! New England at large was blessed with extended peak-like conditions that began in late September with the young and the old maple trees turning fire-engine red, and pumpkin orange, and ended just last week with the populars, birch and healthy maple […]
Maple and Dairy – The Perfect Pair
In the world of food there are some things that are simply a perfect pair – maple and dairy is one of these. Stalwarts of Vermont’s agricultural economy, these two partner up to create some of our favorite foods. What’s Vermont summer without a maple creemee? What’s an apple pie without a slice of cheddar […]
Maple Butter Morning
There are so many ways to eat maple butter – besides straight out of the jar – on toast, with fruit, swirled in yogurt. So, it was with great delight to receive some fan e(mail) sharing a new maple butter recipe. Reveling in eating Butternut Mountain Farm maple butter, Olivea says, “I bought a jar […]
A Sweet Squeeze
This July, Butternut Mountain Farm will release a new product that will change the way we use maple syrup. The company has developed a squeeze bottle that eliminates the mess, waste and poor portion control of the traditional, clunky maple syrup bottle. The granddaughters of the company’s founder came up with the idea for the […]
Avoiding Faux Maple
We’ve long lamented that pure maple syrup should be much more ubiquitous than it is. So much so that, some of us go to “extreme measures” to make sure we don’t find ourselves forced to order something simply because the pancakes will be served with a side of faux maple syrup. Carrying little bottles of […]
A New Look For Butternut Mountain Farm
How we look – the labels we have, the logo we use – is just one of many forms of expression of our brand. Inspired by the knowledge that the maple syrup grades would be changing and that this would necessitate a broad change of our labels, we undertook a review of our visual identity. […]
Maple Grade Changes in Vermont
We wanted to share with you some exciting developments that are unfolding in the maple industry around harmonizing the grading systems for pure maple syrup. In early 2012, after nearly a decade of work, the International Maple Syrup Institute (IMSI) put forth a recommendation to unify the grading designations among maple syrup producing jurisdictions. The […]
Vermont Common Crackers Discontinued
For nearly two decades Butternut Mountain Farm has provided Vermont Common Crackers and Cookie buttons to retailers around the state. Earlier this month, Vermont Common Foods, maker of Common Crackers and Cookie Buttons, announced that they would cease accepting wholesale and distributor orders for products June 1st. For Butternut Mountain Farm customers, this means that […]