Man in a plaid shirt sits in a rustic cabin with bottles and jars on shelves.

Meet a Sugar Maker: Ed Smith

As part of our series highlighting Members, we’re sharing short interviews with Vermont’s sugar makers, large and small, near and far. On July 29, 2020, VMSMA had a conversation with Ed Smith of Smith Family Maple in Cambridgeport, Vermont. Ed recently joined the VMSMA Board as a representative for Windham County.

Wooden shed interior with shelves of colorful jars and boxes.

ED: I texted you some pictures just now, ahead of our conversation, so you could see what I was talking about when I mention my collection of syrup pitchers. I have over 250 syrup pourers in my sugarhouse, so it’s a topic of conversation when we have visitors.

VMSMA: That is a lot of syrup pitchers! I’ve been using mason jars to keep my opened syrup in the fridge, but I might have to invest in a pitcher myself. The mason jars are hard to open when syrup gets on the rim…and they’re a little messy.

ED: The other pictures are from a photo shoot for Vermont Country Store in Weston about four or five years ago. They wanted pictures for their catalogue and their website. I wasn’t supposed to be in the pictures, but I ended up in the photo shoot for firing gloves and some sugarhouse shots.

VMSMA: So you’re a sugar maker and a hand model?

ED: I guess so! If you look closely at the pictures, you can see that they used cotton batting for snow in front of the sugar house. They also used cornstarch to resemble snowflakes. I’m semi-retired and work part-time for Vermont Country Store doing carpentry projects. So the pandemic has me installing new doors and old windows (instead of the plexiglass that many retailers are using) as sneeze guards near the registers for social distancing. I also sell my syrup to their café, and they use it in their creemees at Mildred’s Dairy Bar as well. I don’t make enough syrup to sell through their catalog.

Colorful maple syrup bottles on wooden shelves in rustic setting.

VMSMA: How much syrup do you make in an average year?

ED: I make about 200 gallons of syrup a year. I tap on my own five acres and also tap on about 120 acres leased from the Vermont Land Trust and on 150-200 acres of ag land. Twenty years ago, this was farmland that was home to 20 head of cattle and 200 sheep. I have about 800 taps now, down from 1,000, when I also used to have about 200 buckets. As the kids got older, I decided to give up the buckets. About two-thirds of the taps are on vacuum, and the others are gravity-fed. I’m planning to increase to 1,500-2,000 taps on additional land from the Vermont Land Trust. But I’ll be 64 next July…

VMSMA: Which is still quite young!

ED: …and I’m semi-retired, so I probably won’t grow beyond that. I retired last December after 15 years with the Townshend Highway Department. Sidenote: This comment started a whole side conversation about small towns, gravel roads and highway departments for Ed and Allison, since we both have that in common!

Steam rising from a large metal vat in an industrial setting.

VMSMA: How (and when) did you start sugaring?

ED: In grade school, probably 5th or 6th grade, we went on a field trip to a sugarhouse. After that, I started to tap a few trees in our yard, using a #10 can from the kitchen. I boiled in our kitchen at home, but ended up peeling the wallpaper, which didn’t really make my mom happy, so she kicked me outside where I used a flat pan on cement blocks. I made some pretty dark syrup as a kid! Since then, I’ve always worked on farms that also sugared and would make and sell syrup, and sell firewood…just like many Vermonters, whatever you need to do to make a living.

About 12 or 13 years ago, I built a new sugarhouse on my property. The sugarhouse I had used previously was on the farm I worked at. It was basically a woodshed with a roof and no sides. Since boiling season is about the same time as lambing season, it allowed me to check on the sheep nearby regularly.

Most everything I make is sold out of the sugarhouse or our home; I usually sell everything I make. I also sell to Grace Cottage Hospital where the chef is into the localvore movement and buys a lot of food locally. When Vermonters are sick and in the hospital, they want real Vermont maple syrup. I have a friend who owns an ice cream stand in Oregon; she’s still writing her business plan, but hopes to buy syrup from me as well. And I also sell to an Amish woman who owns a farm stand in Pennsylvania.

VMSMA: How did you set up that relationship?

ED: My wife and I visit Pennsylvania every year around the first of August for the Threshermen’s Reunion, for about the past 15 years. We got into the habit of stopping at a local farm stand in town and got to talking to the owner who sells vegetables, baked goods and crafts. We’d have iced tea with her on the porch and we got to talking about maple syrup. So she sells our syrup and she and my wife write letters throughout the year.

 

Cozy wooden store at dusk, warmly lit inside, with snow on the ground and trees around.

VMSMA: Is someone in your family going to continue sugaring after you’re fully retired?

ED: I hope one of my daughters will keep it going. My youngest is a buyer at Vermont Country Store; she likes to help with boiling and with visitors during Maple Open House Weekend. My oldest daughter and her boyfriend like to spend time in the woods, walking the lines and checking for leaks. They’ll come over after work and use headlamps to find their way through the woods. And we now have four generations in the sugarhouse between my father and my grandkids.

For open houses, we give syrup samples and corn fritters to visitors.

VMSMA: Corn fritters?

ED: Corn fritters. Every open house since I opened the sugarhouse. My mom used to make them. We use whole kernel corn and fritter batter and deep fry it and of course put maple syrup on it. Some people like fried dough, but we’ve always done corn fritters.

Wow! Thank you for sharing some of your stories and your pictures; I really look forward to sharing these with our members and will keep an eye out in the next Vermont Country Store catalogue for your picture (or your hands)!