12/15/2025 - Rutland County, Vt. –  VEDA helps a family business streamline and grow.

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Rutland County, Vt. – Brothers Tanner and Elliott Stewart were always drawn to maple. They didn’t come from a family of sugar makers, but as kids in Cuttingsville they helped their neighbors by collecting their sap buckets. As teens, the boys thought they could make a living on maple. Then in 2009 at 16 and 14 years old, Tanner and Elliott decided to collect their own sap and make syrup, and Stewart Maple was born.

Today Tanner is the COO and Elliott is the CEO and CFO of this family-owned, organic maple business. Their father, Mark, is lead contractor on company projects. And Elliott’s wife Alyssa works for the family business too, focusing on public relations, sales, and marketing.

She says this family affair is a finely tuned operation.

"They have a really incredible story of how our business has taken off, and everyone has a clear role within the business," Alyssa said.

Stewart Maple has grown continually over the last 16 years and now manages taps on more than 1,200 acres of owned and leased land. They sell their maple products directly to customers via their website and on-site farm store, and wholesale to large retailers like Butternut Mountain Farm in Morrisville.

VEDA and Stewart Maple first joined forces last year. VEDA helped them refinance, combining several loans into one, and saving money at the same time. From loans for purchasing equipment to buying buildings, consolidation meant a new kind of freedom – one payment with one rate.

For young business owners, just entering their 30s, uncomplicating the books was a huge help. Without that consolidation Stewart Maple would likely have had to hire someone to manage their finances and the scattered debt could have dampened future plans.

"If VEDA didn't exist, our company would not have been able to continue to grow, because we would have had to be like, 'Okay this is getting really complex. This is hard'," Alyssa said.

Cuttingsville, the community which has supported the maple operation all along, is changing. Many who work the land in this corner of Rutland County are retiring. Their shifting hometown and VEDA’s resources presented Stewart Maple with a unique opportunity to enhance their business and keep Cuttingsville thriving.

In addition to debt consolidation, VEDA helped finance the purchase of 108 acres of sugarbush in Wallingford, as well as make upgrades to their existing Cuttingsville operation. Now the business plans to replace 2,500 taps, add 5,000 new taps, install new equipment, and add a pump line to send sap directly to the sugarhouse. Those improvements are expected to result in $1.2M in maple sales in 2025.

"VEDA gave us the freedom to be like, 'we can now continue to grow the way that we want to be growing and also have a family and have a life that's outside of just working really hard'," explains Alyssa.

Thanks to VEDA’s support Tanner, Elliott, Mark, and Alyssa hope to spend more time enjoying Vermont and each other when they are off the clock.

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