A Slow Boil: Marketing’s Long Game
A common marketing mistake is starting with the tools: social media, labels, or logos. Instead, marketing starts with: the business story, business goals, and identifying customers.
Resource type: Practical Skills
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Does FSMA’s Preventive Controls Rule Apply to your Maple Operation?
Some maple operations will have compliance requirements under the Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule of the Food Safety Modernization Act or FSMA. Determining where or if your operation falls under this rule is complicated, so our UNH Extension FSMA team has created an online tool that asks you a series of questions and based on your answers tells you where you most likely fall under the rule.
Tapping Tips: The basics of identifying trees and setting taps
Whether you anticipate tapping in your backyard with a half dozen trees or you wish to begin a bit more aggressively with several hundred taps, the core techniques and methods are the same. This guide will introduce you to basic maple tree identification and then prepare you for the basics of tree tapping, time of tapping and the logistics of getting started in the woods.
Adding Profits Through Value-Added Products
The tried-and-true value-added maple products include candy and cream, and many producers have taken advantage of these products already. Some have gone further, adding maple products like ice cream, maple cotton candy, and maple-coated popcorn or nuts. More adventurous sugarmakers have begun making additional items, like salad dressings, hot sauces, and dog biscuits.
Assessing Strategies for Spout and Drop Sanitation in 5/16″ Tubing: Sap Yield, Cost, and Net Profit
The University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center and the Cornell Maple Program Arnot Forest conducted a multi-year study examining several common sanitation strategies and assessing the effects on sap yield, attendant costs, and resulting net profits. The following graphs briefly summarize the results of this work.
Sap Value Calculator
Use this online calculator to determine the proper price to pay for sap.
Quality Control in the Sugarhouse: Knowing where things can go wrong, and making sure that they don’t.
The most helpful advice for producers concerned about damaging otherwise good syrup is the most basic; make sure to grade each batch carefully and don’t assume that just because everything went smoothly in the sugarhouse that the syrup doesn’t need to be checked. The following is a list of problems that can occur with the four primary qualities of syrup, and how to avoid them.
The Season is Over: Now, How Will You Sell Your Syrup?
No two sugarmakers follow the exact same path. For some, their business grows slowly, one weekend farmers market at a time, and they prefer to stay small. Others build their backyard operations into wholesale businesses that keep them busy year-round. Some enjoy selling directly to their customers. And others would rather focus on production, and let established retailers take care of the rest. These snapshots of four sugaring enterprises illustrate just a few of those successful models.
Tapping Zone Model – Tubing
This model estimates the proportion of clear, conductive wood in the tapping zone of an individual tree each year (for 100 years) based on the values input for tree diameter, tapping depth, spout size, number of taps, and dropline length. This is equivalent to the chances of tapping into conductive wood in this tree each year Ð if 80% of the wood in the tapping zone is conductive, you have an 80% chance of hitting conductive wood when you tap that tree. The model can be used to estimate whether various tapping practices are likely to be sustainable. A more complete description of the model and guidelines for its use can be found in the companion technical report “A Model of the Tapping Zone”, which is available on the UVM-PMRC website (http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc).
Sap Buying Spreadsheets
This spreadsheet tool helps determine the value of sap based on a range of factors.