Jacksonville Vermont Sugar House

After a brief lunch just to prove to my stomach that there are foods other than donuts and sweet maple candy we figured we had time for 1 more stop before the sugar houses began to shut down for the day. Joe pulled up his little map for the next closest Sugar House and found Sprague & Son Sugar House in Jacksonville, Vermont.

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I was still looking for the sugar-on-snow, a treat from my childhood. We’d had the snow all day but so far only our first stop had boiling sap and it wasn’t ready to be poured over snow. It had a lot more cooking to do before then.

Sampling more Maple

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Our wintry mix had turned more to rain when we spotted Sprague & Son. They had some nice decorative touches with a wood carving out front and a miniature sugar house.

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This sugar house was busier than the first two and quite crowded. Their samples were something called maple crunches which looked to me like crumbled maple sugar candy. A great way to recycle broken maple candies. But the big item they were pushing was called Maple Creme. They had a large bowl of it and lots of little wooden spoons. It has a thick, smooth consistency like frosting. Another hit! It wouldn’t take too much of this to overdose on sugar!

The Evaporator

Their evaporator was right there in the main room. Something was steaming but it might just have been water. They said they had run out of sap to boil. They too use the plastic tubing to bring the sap from the trees to the evaporator. I didn’t hear anyone say what they use for fuel but I’m guessing wood if the wood piles outside are any indication. They had some very attractive product displays.

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Joe got the picture of the day here when he noticed a window covered in condensation with bottles of syrup balanced on the panes.

Photo by Joe St. Jean, Take Pride Photography https://www.facebook.com/JRStJeanPhotographer/

Maple Walnut

Behind the cash register was a soft serve machine. The only flavor, why Maple of course! Buy a cup of maple soft serve, sprinkle in some maple gazed walnuts, top with a splash of maple syrup and voila! Maple Walnut soft serve. (that’s for my sister, Sandy).

All About Sprague & Son

I couldn’t find a website that worked but I did find them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Sprague-Son-Sugarhouse-290671490950920/

There was also a nice write up on their history at http://www.whitingham-maplefest.us/sprague.html

Locate at 1631 Rt 100 this was the easiest of the 3 sugar houses to find. Open daily during Sugaring season. Weekends and Holidays the remainder of the year. Free samples of all of their products are always available.

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The Sugar House at the Robb Family Farm

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Stepping into the Sugar House at the Robb Family Farm was like stepping back in time. The rich maple aroma washed over you immediately. Who cares about maple syrup. Lets just make a perfume like this…heavenly!

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The Sugar House is made of wood; wooden floors, wooden doors, wooden tables. Take a right as you enter the shop, push open a wooden door and you are right where the magic happens. Most of the room is taken up by a huge furnace or stove or I’m not sure what to call it except what it is, an evaporator. It’s a huge fire box with large, shallow pans to boil the the sap into the thick, sweet, gooey goodness we all love on our morning pancakes.

From Sap to Syrup

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It takes an amazing amount of sap to make even 1 quart of syrup. Usually about 40 gallons of sap are required to produce one gallon of finished syrup. This evaporator is burning wood for fuel which explains the huge woodpiles we saw as we came in.

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It’s a feast for the senses. Imagine the smells of a wood burning fireplace with a strong overlay of maple.

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To the right of the evaporator was a small table with maple cookies and homemade donuts, free samples. I especially liked the cookies. One of the maple farmers was watching over the process and explaining everything to the crowd as we filtered through.

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Vermont Maple Sugar Products

Back in the shop I had to choose. Did I want a big maple leaf or a small bag of maple candy or something in between. It all looked so good and of course it smelled good so it’s hard to resist.

Some History

It’s no wonder the Sugar House looks old. The Robb Family Farm was established in 1907. For 105 years the farm was a commercial dairy farm but in 2011 the farm became victim of the badly fluctuating dairy prices and milked its last cow. That was when they began to concentrate on the Vermont Maple Syrup products.

The farm also shifted from dairy to beef. Now you can purchase naturally grown and fed beef, no antibiotics and no hormones. I haven’t tried Robb Family Farm beef but we raised our own beef when I was growing up and it definitely tastes better than the standard grocery store beef.

What a great start to our Vermont Maple Syrup Festival! A very traditional Sugar House with a wood burning evaporator, yummy maple cookies and donuts and a warm, friendly atmosphere.

I don’t know if the Robb Family Farm is open to visitors or tours when it’s not the big Maple Sugar Festival but they have an online store at http://robbfamilyfarm.com/

I can personally vouch for their maple sugar candy…2 thumbs up!

If you plan a visit they are located at 827 Ames Hill Rd. Brattleboro, VT. 802-257-0163