Al Wood grew up on the property that he now uses for maple sugaring. As a kid he was on the “bucket brigade,” and he remembers his grandfather boiling sap late into the night, air filed with the sweet, warm smell and his young mind full of anticipation, waiting for the thrill of checking in the next morning to see how many gallons resulted. As he got older, he found an interest in nutrition and studied the foods we eat — maple syrup, he said, is a perfect food in that the process involves boiling away water from a clean product to create (the best) natural sweeter.
“It’s always been fascinating and amazing to me that there’s an abundance of maple trees out there and how much natural sugar we get,” he said.
He is the fourth generation carrying on the work. After earning a teaching degree and trying that world, he realized it wasn’t for him, and he returned to his roots. “I probably should have been a business major, but you don’t know yourself so much then,” he quipped.
He branched out on his own as Wood’s Vermont Syrup, Co., but said it is still very much a family business — upgrades and new equipment added to the spirit and tradition set in place before he took the helm. His innovation came from that love of food and nutrition — “What else can we do with maple?” he wondered. He was among the first to put it in a bourbon barrel to impart that unique flavor profile.
Then COVID changed everything.
While retail sales went online, wholesale dropped, he said, with customers finding alternative sources and more mass-produced syrup options. This, coupled with increased bottle prices and much more, created a loss of income. The trade shows he loved attending slowed or stopped during COVID, just now regaining steam and leaving uncertainty hanging overhead.
“It’ll be interesting to see what the next couple of years holds in the maple world,” he said.
A forgivable loan from VEDA, he said, “Definitely helped with just staying afloat in a lot of different ways.” Particularly with the invisible costs of doing business — fuel oil, electricity, labor costs. “I worked really hard,” he said, “I’m just going to keep adapting as I need to, to make it work one way or another.” VEDA’s staff is similar in that way — Wood said they were understanding, timely and easy to get a hold of.
“They answered all my questions. They definitely understood what I was trying to do with the business; I couldn't have been more thankful for that.”
The VEDA Short Term Forgivable Loan Program was made possible in part by a grant from the State of Vermont through the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, Department of Economic Development.
