The 2026 sugaring season is well underway. And that means our local sugar makers are working around the clock to make the most of this year’s harvest!

A big thank you to the folks at Baird Farm Maple Syrup for taking the time out of their busy schedule to share with us their unique maple sugaring story! You can find their products at both market locations!

Q. Tell us your story. 

A. Our 585-acre farm is located in North Chittenden, Vermont and has been in the Baird family for four generations. Bonnie and Bob Baird own the farm, while their daughter Jenna and her partner Jacob run the maple syrup business. Jenna’s great grandparents, Sara and Ralph Baird, purchased the farm from family in 1918.

For over a hundred years, the farm paid its bills by milking cows, and the sugaring was a side hustle. The cows were sold in 1996 and, since that time, maple syrup has been the primary crop on the farm. Today the farm taps 15,000 maple trees.

Jenna and Jacob have greatly expanded the maple retail market, value-added products and agritourism. Stop by and visit or schedule a tour to learn more about the operation!

Q. What makes your product unique? 

A. Our maple meets the highest of quality standards; we’re certified Organic, certified Bird Friendly, and boil in VMSMA state certified Sugarhouse. Our sugarbush is conserved with the Vermont Land Trust and we are deeply committed to land stewardship.

We make small batch, single source, unblended maple. We boil on an old fashioned evaporator at a lower temperature to ensure a full caramelization. We think it’s some of the best in Vermont, we hope you do to!

Q. What inspires your work? 

A. We believe when you eat good food, you connect to the land. Our mission is to help you do that. We love the woods. Being in them, looking at them, working in community with them. You probably love the woods, too. They are magical. Evoke childhood memories of freedom, imagination, and endless possibility. We like that. We believe that those ethereal and sparkly bits are still out there, and we believe that we could all use a little more woods in our lives. Lucky for us all, syrup comes from trees, and is a daily, delicious reminder of that magic for which we all yearn.

Our purpose is to steward our land well, and connect with our community. Syrup is a means to do both. Everything we do is in service to treating our land well, building relationships with humans, and connecting them to the joys of the land. If we do our job well (and if we say so, we do), we can continue doing both for a good, long time.

Q. What do you love most about being part of the Woodstock Farmers’ Market community?

A. We’ve been shopping (and eating!) at Woodstock Farmers Market since we were little. Everyone knows it’s THE place to go to fill your cabinet and bellies with the finest foods of Vermont. We’re absolutely stoked to be able to offer our products to the community; a community that really values quality, giving back, and of course, tastiness.

Q. Is there anything customers might be surprised to learn about your farm, business, or process?

A. Modern sugaring isn’t like it used to be with rusty buckets hanging on trees. Today our job is essentially “outdoor plumbing.” There are about 120 miles of tubing in our woods that are used to efficiently gather the sap.

Most folks think the hardest work is tapping the trees but that’s only where the work begins. Modern sugarmakers apply vacuum pumps to their tubing system to get higher yields. We might make 2-3x more syrup if we maintain high vacuum in the woods. So, we “walk” the 120 miles of tubing over and over again fixing leaks in the tubing; not sap leaks, vacuum leaks.

There’s hundreds of leaks in the woods and we find them all. There are larger leaks from animals chewing on line, or wind damage, to tiny “microleaks” where tubing meets fittings. It’s like fixing 15,000 Christmas lights. There’s always more work to be done in the woods.