Sugaring turns out to be a good fit for Toms Creek Family Farm in Wayne County.
Toms Creek Family Farm, in the southwestern part of the state, has been in Greg Christian’s family for over a century. It was pasture in the early 1900s. But since the 1940s, about 20 of the 30 acres has reverted to woodland, with lots of red maples.
In 2017, Christian and his dad attended a maple demonstration by a nearby producer, Rich Flanigan. They thought sugaring could be a good complement to their summer operation supplying produce to Twelvepole Trading Post in Wayne and The Wild Ramp in Huntington. They toured Flanigan’s sugar bush, then tapped a dozen trees for the 2018 sugaring season. By 2019, they’d set up a sugar shack.
A few years ago, produce and maple syrup each accounted for half of the farm’s revenues. But given Christian’s day job—he’s an engineer who sometimes travels—and a decline in his dad’s energy level in his 70s, the sugaring workflow actually suits them better. Christian estimates that syrup now makes up 80% of farm revenues.
The Christians soon worked out agreements to harvest sap from nearby maple stands. They had almost 500 taps total when the February 2021 ice storm hit. “I lost two sugar bushes,” Christian says. They’re still rebounding. Between maxing out their own stand at around 200 taps this year and adding a new sugar bush, they hope to get back to 500 taps for 2025.
Toms Creek’s equipment requires a longer boil, making for darker syrup, Christian says. Not a problem: In his observation, people north of the Mason–Dixon line prefer lighter syrup, but where he is, they like it darker and stronger. Toms Creek makes infusions like vanilla and chipotle, too, and their most popular product is a Bourbon Maple Syrup aged in barrels from The Bullock Distillery in Charleston. All of that and their maple cream and cotton candy are sold at Twelvepole Trading Post and The Wild Ramp.
A science-minded guy, Christian likes experimenting. He’s considering making walnut syrup, and he’s doing research with Future Generations University, comparing the productivity of a thinned quarter-acre plot with a control plot. “It’s nice to do something different for half a day or a weekend—farming, but in my engineering wheelhouse.” He’s also looking to the future, clearing invasive autumn olive this year and planting maples with wide spacing to maximize the canopy and the sap production. “It’ll be 40 or 50 years before those can be tapped.”
Overall, sugaring has been a nice change. “It’s fun in the winter,” he says. “The sugar shack is heated, so we just go in there and smell that stuff all day long.”
READ MORE ARTICLES FROM WV LIVING’S SUMMER 2024 ISSUE
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FOREST TO FORK
A SWEET LEGACY
TREE TO BOTTLE
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