Did you know that the syrup on your waffle in our Yellow Deli, and the pretty little bottles of syrup you bought in our Market, is very special maple syrup carefully made in the far north of Vermont? Yes, our syrup has a wonderful story to tell.
Authentic and Genuine
Our syrup is made 100% from the sap of maple trees by our own brothers living in one of our original communities far in the North in a small town called Island Pond, Vermont. There, the men are rugged hardworking mountain men. They do not mind going out in the very cold winter wind and blowing snow to cut firewood and to prepare for the gathering of sap from the trees in the early springtime. They have no thought of “cutting” their syrup with sugar syrup to make more money. Maple syrup is maple syrup, nothing added, and full of its own natural goodness.
Our Community began in northern Vermont fifty years ago when a good man received the “Good News” of salvation. Yes, this syrup has a wonderful story to tell. At that time, sugaring (that is, making maple syrup) was still mostly done the old-fashioned way – buckets hung on taps in trees, horses pulling sleds with tanks to gather the precious sap. They gathered buckets of the sap and brought it down to their “sugar-shack” to boil it over a hot fire and watch it turn into the precious golden syrup we know and love as real Maple Syrup. Many times they would load the children up in the horse drawn wagon to tap the trees and help boil the sap… it was a time of great joy in the early springtime when flowers were still hidden beneath the melting snow…
Now, those children are grown and have more modern ways to make a lot more syrup more efficiently with more modern equipment. Nowadays, we use special sap tubes to draw the sap straight down from the Maple Trees into the sugar-shack at the bottom of the hill. There they have a special tank where they boil the sap down into syrup. After testing it, they pour it into containers and send it to our Yellow Delis and our Markets…. And our homes! Sometimes, just for the joy of it, we get out the horses just like in the olden days and spend a day tapping trees with our children. There are thousands of trees, and we still have to visit each tree every year during winter.
The hard work remains the same, and snow is just as deep. If you made the long journey to near the Canadian border, you will no longer find teams of horses and wagons trudging through the deep snow. But you will find a people who authentically live out their faith day by day, winter by winter, then making their beautiful maple syrup drop by precious drop… Yes, our life, like our syrup comes one drop at a time… The amazing thing is that together the drops actually make something… Our life together has made a whole new way of life… No longer just one lonely farmer trying to scratch out a living in the far Northeast…
We make enough syrup to share with all our Delis and Markets in the USA, and also send it to our other communities in different parts of the world. 100% pure maple syrup is one of the most naturally delightful substances on planet earth, but finding pure syrup is very rare. Many people see the label “Maple Syrup” and do not even know that it should actually just be coming from that precious sap of maple trees, but many falsely label their “maple syrup” as pure but it is actually not. We have a maple syrup (and really a whole life) that you can come and “verify” by seeing it with your own eyes. It is no small task in the deep snow and freezing temperatures to gather this sweet sap. But with us there is an amazing story behind this laborious process of syrup-making at our sugarbush. Our life is as real as our syrup, if you’d like to take the time to know a little about the “life” behind the syrup, please read on…
Our Beautiful Sugarbush
Maple trees… and a farmer… and a hope… in God.
The farmer who originally owned this hill of maple trees had a heart for God. Being in the hills of Vermont, the farmer looked for ways to “live out his faith” and make it real. Finally, in the late 1970’s he heard the “good news of salvation” and became part of our people, a community of believers that lives just like the first church in the Book of Acts in the Bible. That is an odd book that comes right after Matthew, Mark, Luke and John… There is an interesting chapter in the Bible that tells about what those first famous people did with their lives after they came to believe in the Son of God… Yes, after the resurrection spoken of in the Bible, the believers did something… They had “acts” or actions, to show that they actually believed… So this farmer, Gene Sage, acted upon his faith, and like the first believers in the Bible, he brought his farms and land into our community and shared it with the other believers, as recorded in Acts 2:44 and 4:32. The believers shared all things in common… even their sugarbush. We called our sugarbush “Sage Mountain” after this kind, hardworking farmer. Then it was the job of the whole community to tap the trees. Here we can practice our skills of gathering maple sap, and also an even older practice of “loving your neighbor as yourself”… We are all together making your syrup, like all the drops of golden sap flow together… each drop is very important…
… And it was not just Gene who gave up his farm. He had a good friend named Andy, the local plumber, who also had a heart that longed to please God. He also gave up his life into the community of believers and became our local Sugar-Master for many years. He drove the horses, and you can see his picture in our logo. Andy knows maple syrup well, so he began working together in the community, leading the way to make our syrup… Oh, he also fixed our plumbing sometimes, but the sugarbush is his passion… Our sugarbush has been appraised as one of the best in the region. Andy loves maple syrup… and so does Gene Sage… and he loves and respects the God who caused the maple trees to make the sweet sap that we can tap… He and the others in the community care for the maple trees.
You see, this maple syrup does have a wonderful story behind it… It has a life of love….
It is rare to be able to actually touch the source of a product, to know where it comes from, and even to come into contact with the ones who make it. This maple syrup from our sugarbush is about as genuine as it comes…
We just wanted you to know that the syrup you are eating on your waffle today in the Yellow Deli or that you buy in our little market is not just any old commercially made product. If you’re passing through northern Vermont sometime, we would be happy to show you around our sugarbush. It’s becoming rare to find true 100% maple syrup made with integrity. That sweet syrup poured upon your hot, buttery waffle this morning at the Yellow Deli is the real thing… verified by the life that backs it up…
Honestly… from your friends at Sage Mountain Maple…
…and all the Yellow Delis
