Balancing a sweet family tradition with change
Tom Morse – Owner and Sugarmaker, Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks, Montpelier, VT
15 October 2021
Located in Vermont’s capital city, Montpelier, the Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks is the state’s oldest maple farm and sugarmaker. On a warm summer day, the farm is buzzing with tourists enjoying the expansive farm grounds and indulging in all things maple including the soft serve maple flavoured ice cream, known locally as a creemee. Against this background of activity, we meet Tom Morse an eighth-generation maple syrup maker who works alongside other family members.
“I always had it in the back of my mind that I would be working in the family business,” Tom says. “I work mostly with my dad Burr Morse, who is the president of Morse Farm. We’re partners and share responsibilities as farmers, sugarmakers and business owners. We do a little bit of everything around here.”
“We were a dairy farm and roadside vegetable stand, really simple homegrown foods and always sugarmakers from over 200 years ago. My grandfather and father are the ones who decided to diversify and start this place. They got sick of dairy farming,” he says with a chuckle and wide grin. “My grandfather was on the forefront of the agrotourism wave and had the idea to cater to out-of-staters.”
Besides himself, his dad, uncle Elliot Morse and other family members, Tom says that they also hire some non-family staff. “There’s about a half a dozen full time, and maybe as many as twenty part-time depending on the time of year and how busy we are,” he says. During their busy times, Morse states that they can have as many as fifteen tour buses pull up and hundreds of peoples in cars in one day.
Given the institutional knowledge that Tom and his family members have by virtue of having grown up in the family business, they try to hire as many family members as they can. “We try to employ as many family members as we can, and other people who are knowledgeable about the maple industry. We hire people who are friendly, outgoing, and promote our retail products in the store and are great at welcoming people.”
“Not everybody outside of family will have experience in this industry so we train them and provide them with general knowledge and frequently asked questions, about the sugaring process and how we do it here.”
“Dedication, being there through the good and bad times, and being willing to do anything that is required of you from the most menial tasks to speaking with visitors,” Tom says are important skills needed to run the business. He emphasizes that “you have to be hard working, willing to roll up your sleeves and sometimes be able to work all night if needed.”
“We have close to 200 acres total on this farm, and about 80 to 100 acres of sugar maple trees, which is about 5,000 trees, that we are able to tap. On the rest of the land, we have a lot of Christmas trees and also have a few cattle for beef,” Morse explains.
The best time to tap maple sugar trees for sap is in the spring Morse explains. “In the springtime, freezing and thawing are the optimal conditions. We want it to be fairly cold at night about 25 °F and then a thawing temperature of about 40-45 °F during the daytime. The freezing and thawing is what gives runs of maple sap from the tree which we collect to produce maple syrup.”
“We drill new holes before the start of the season every year, so we’re out in the middle of the winter. We start going around in our snowshoes and drilling in early February,” he says. “We are out there by 8 am in the morning until about 5 pm, but once the season starts it can be almost 24 hours because we have to collect the sap, and the trees can run all night if the temperatures are not freezing,” he highlights. “You have to make hay while the sun shines.”
After collecting the sap from the trees, it is then boiled in the sugarhouse. The taste of maple syrup Tom says, “varies from location to location.” He describes how some maple producers “use a reverse osmosis machine to sweeten the sap before boiling it,” and some choose to just boil the sap. Boiling the sap is what gives it an amber hue. “The longer you cook it over a fire, the more flavour it gets,” he explains. “And ours has more character because we’re boiling it longer.”
Although sugaring is a seasonal business, the farm is open every day of the year, and visitors can come and enjoy everything from the fall foliage, farm animals, and the multimedia displays in the woodshed theater which make for an entertaining experience. The retail shop which has been on the grounds for over 57 years offers top grade maple syrups, and other maple products such as maple cream, butter, candy and popcorn. Other Vermont made food products are also available.
As a father to a young daughter, Tom says he “would like to provide the opportunity for her to be a part of the business,” if she is interested but does not want to pressure her into it. “I’m just happy to have her grow up in the same place I did where she can meet people and learn the trade,” he acknowledges.
In terms of his future hopes for the business, Tom says “balancing tradition with evolution is key as well as keeping the agriculture part of the business alive. We have to be mindful of our history, while trying to change as the times evolve.” Just as he says that a new group of tourists arrive and are welcomed by their tour guide.
“I always had it in the back of my mind that I would be working in the family business,” Tom says. “I work mostly with my dad Burr Morse, who is the president of Morse Farm. We’re partners and share responsibilities as farmers, sugarmakers and business owners. We do a little bit of everything around here.”
“We were a dairy farm and roadside vegetable stand, really simple homegrown foods and always sugarmakers from over 200 years ago. My grandfather and father are the ones who decided to diversify and start this place. They got sick of dairy farming,” he says with a chuckle and wide grin. “My grandfather was on the forefront of the agrotourism wave and had the idea to cater to out-of-staters.”
Besides himself, his dad, uncle Elliot Morse and other family members, Tom says that they also hire some non-family staff. “There’s about a half a dozen full time, and maybe as many as twenty part-time depending on the time of year and how busy we are,” he says. During their busy times, Morse states that they can have as many as fifteen tour buses pull up and hundreds of peoples in cars in one day.
Given the institutional knowledge that Tom and his family members have by virtue of having grown up in the family business, they try to hire as many family members as they can. “We try to employ as many family members as we can, and other people who are knowledgeable about the maple industry. We hire people who are friendly, outgoing, and promote our retail products in the store and are great at welcoming people.”
“Not everybody outside of family will have experience in this industry so we train them and provide them with general knowledge and frequently asked questions, about the sugaring process and how we do it here.”
“Dedication, being there through the good and bad times, and being willing to do anything that is required of you from the most menial tasks to speaking with visitors,” Tom says are important skills needed to run the business. He emphasizes that “you have to be hard working, willing to roll up your sleeves and sometimes be able to work all night if needed.”
“We have close to 200 acres total on this farm, and about 80 to 100 acres of sugar maple trees, which is about 5,000 trees, that we are able to tap. On the rest of the land, we have a lot of Christmas trees and also have a few cattle for beef,” Morse explains.
The best time to tap maple sugar trees for sap is in the spring Morse explains. “In the springtime, freezing and thawing are the optimal conditions. We want it to be fairly cold at night about 25 °F and then a thawing temperature of about 40-45 °F during the daytime. The freezing and thawing is what gives runs of maple sap from the tree which we collect to produce maple syrup.”
“We drill new holes before the start of the season every year, so we’re out in the middle of the winter. We start going around in our snowshoes and drilling in early February,” he says. “We are out there by 8 am in the morning until about 5 pm, but once the season starts it can be almost 24 hours because we have to collect the sap, and the trees can run all night if the temperatures are not freezing,” he highlights. “You have to make hay while the sun shines.”
After collecting the sap from the trees, it is then boiled in the sugarhouse. The taste of maple syrup Tom says, “varies from location to location.” He describes how some maple producers “use a reverse osmosis machine to sweeten the sap before boiling it,” and some choose to just boil the sap. Boiling the sap is what gives it an amber hue. “The longer you cook it over a fire, the more flavour it gets,” he explains. “And ours has more character because we’re boiling it longer.”
Although sugaring is a seasonal business, the farm is open every day of the year, and visitors can come and enjoy everything from the fall foliage, farm animals, and the multimedia displays in the woodshed theater which make for an entertaining experience. The retail shop which has been on the grounds for over 57 years offers top grade maple syrups, and other maple products such as maple cream, butter, candy and popcorn. Other Vermont made food products are also available.
As a father to a young daughter, Tom says he “would like to provide the opportunity for her to be a part of the business,” if she is interested but does not want to pressure her into it. “I’m just happy to have her grow up in the same place I did where she can meet people and learn the trade,” he acknowledges.
In terms of his future hopes for the business, Tom says “balancing tradition with evolution is key as well as keeping the agriculture part of the business alive. We have to be mindful of our history, while trying to change as the times evolve.” Just as he says that a new group of tourists arrive and are welcomed by their tour guide.