Welcome to Sweet Brook Farm (18-Jan 2010)  Welcome to our blog for Sweet Brook Farm located in Williamstown, MA. We are going to share all of our progress with our maple syrup production, vegetable growing, and raising of alpacas. For us, this is more than just a farm…it is a labor of love.  Read more...

Sap Collection Strategy (25-Jan 2010):  Here is my second post of what I hope to be many about what goes into the making of our Gourmet Maple Syrup here at Sweet Brook Farm. I figured I would give you a little background so you could see where we were, where we are, and where we are going.  Read more...

State-of-the-Art Wireless Vacuum Maple Sap Tubing System (30-Jan 2010):  In our research on maple sap collection, tubing systems have always used wires to support the lines through the sugar bush to prevent tube sagging. Any sap left sitting in a sagging tube is a breeding ground for bacteria growth, so it is important to have taught sap lines so the sap can fully drain out.  Read more...

Now that the Sap is in the House (2-Feb 2010):  So when we left off, the sap at Sweet Brook Farm which is used to make our gourmet maple syrup has just finished its long journey from the trees, under the ground, and into the sugar house.  Read more...

Look Mom, No Hands!  (10-Feb 2010):   As we’ve mentioned in several prior posts, one key aspect that makes our maple syrup here at Sweet Brook Farm special is that all our sap is pumped automatically to our sugar house for immediate processing. Our pump house is designed to keep the maple sap cool and deliver it with a bare minimum of hold time. Our sap never sits around or warms up in collection tanks or buckets so it yields the purest syrup possible.  Read how...

Packaging Our Gourmet Maple Syrup (21-Feb 2010):   When we made our syrup last year, we bottled it into industry-standard bottles and sold it at the Williamstown Farmers Market last summer. We were not particularly impressed with these bottles, because they looked too much like other products. We wanted to let people know our maple syrup is something special. We wanted to be different and to stand out. We wanted to impress a market that perhaps is not aware of all the wonderful culinary uses for maple syrup, other than pouring it over their breakfast foods.  Read more...