Hop aboard the bus for a complimentary trip to a sugarbush!  This year two sugarhouses a short ways north of St. Albans are opening their doors to host Festival-goers in search of seeing for themselves the way Pure Vermont Maple Syrup is produced.

In 1996 the Beebe’s bought 40 acres of sugar woods and spent the next 2 ½ years clearing the woods, making roads, and building the sugar house out of lumber logged from the land.


  They have a 5x16 wood fired evaporator with a preheater.  In 1999 they tapped 1500 sugar maple trees and made approximately 450 gallons of maple syrup with the option for more taps in the next couple of years.  In 2005 39 acres were purchased for firewood and to add about 1000 more taps in the future.  Vacuum was added to part of the woods at this time and the rest was finished by 2007.  The most recent purchase was a Reverse Osmosis machine which helps produce the syrup more quickly and efficiently.  The sugarbush lies on very fertile limestone ledge soils.  Currently the Beebe’s tap approximately 2200 taps and produce about 1,000 gallons of syrup. 

French Hill Farms

French Hill Road

St. Albans, Vermont 05478

(802) 309-0499

French Hill Farms is owned by Tom and Barb Hungerford, and their sons Chris, Mark and Jim.  Beginning as a backyard hobby in the 1990's, their sugaring operation has evolved to 3,000 taps.

In 2004, a 24 by 40 foot up-to-date sugarhouse was built on French Hill in St. Albans Town, where a large percentage of the sap is collected by pipeline.  A few hundred buckets surround the sugarhouse, and are gathered by a tractor and wagon, so visitors can see both methods of bringing sap to the sugarhouse.

The Hungerford’s sap is processed through a reverse osmosis machine, where it is fed into a 3 by 10 foot evaporator above a woodfired arch, entering the evaporator at about 7% sugar content (coming from the tree, sugar content is usually about 2%.)  The finished syrup is filtered through a 7" press, removing minerals that accumulate during boiling, making it highly desirable for glass containers.  

Visitors and tours are welcome any time especially during the maple season and syrup is always available for sale in various size containers.