With Maine’s maple syrup production in full gear early this year, we got curious about being where one goes to buy equipment to tap trees, so we called up Suga Country Products in Vassalboro to chat. Suga, we thought, what a clever name for a business that sells everything you need – other than the tree – to sugar. We got the proprietor Joe on the phone and this is how our conversation unfolded.
IN WHICH WE FEEL STUPID: What a great name! How did you come up with it? (We wondered whether or not they had debated maybe “Sugah” to be super Maine about the whole thing.) “There’s no R,” Joe said. Right. How did you come with it again? “That’s my name.” Suga? Really? (Silence). I mean, what a coincidence. (Silence.)
MOVING ON: Joe Suga and his wife, Adele, started Suga Country Products 22 years ago. They sell equipment and make syrup themselves (only available at their store). Joe used to work in state government – human resources specifically – in Augusta, and also did some work as an electrical contractor. He got into the sugaring business to shake things up. “My feeling was it was something totally different from what I was normally doing every day of the week. It was a good release, or whatever you want to call it. A change of gears.”
FROM THE GROUND UP: The Sugas started from scratch. “We were very fortunate,” he said. “It grew. We feel we have a very good customer base, and we keep getting new customers every year.” Their customers range from novices to people “with thousands of taps.” They sell tapping equipment from two major companies with U.S. headquarters in Vermont, Dominion & Grimm Inc. and Lapierre, as well as from a few other manufacturers.
IS TAPPING TRENDY? Thirty years ago, Suga remembers “very few people doing it.” But now, with the local food movement in full swing, hobby tapping has gotten quite popular, he said. “Now there are a lot of people that are doing it for the experience of doing something at home and something for their children to do at home.”
NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: The customers with no experience should take heart. “It’s not hard to take on. There is a minimal investment in order to do it.” As in, bucket, tap, and a place to boil and a hydrometer and thermometer. He’s given plenty of startup lessons. “That is what we are here for.”
99 BOTTLES OF SYRUP: Suga’s sells about 50 kinds of glass bottles and a wide variety of plastic jugs. That’s solid repeat business, especially for sugar makers who are selling retail versus making for themselves: “We have some people that use their bottles over again, but you can’t sell a bottle that you used before.” Has equipment changed much over the years? “It has. The principle is the same, but efficiency has increased.” Witness the many types of evaporators – wood-fired, oil, pellet-based. “They have even got electrical.”
TEACHING TAPPING: Suga grew up on a dairy farm in Vassalboro where he learned how to tap trees from his parents. But they were making syrup for family use, on a backyard stove, “very primitive,” he said. When he started tapping trees as an adult, “it just got back in my blood again so we kept going.” And going: now they tap 350 trees, mostly on their own farm and some across the street at their neighbor’s. And no, it hasn’t been an ideal year. “It is very spotty. It may run for two or three days, and then it quits because it gets too damn cold.” And there’s a good chance that the sap will have stopped running by today.
SUGA’S SUGAR? He and Adele make just one thing. “Syrup, syrup, syrup.” Cooked over wood. Not because of a preference but “It’s a product that we have that I don’t have to buy.” They bottle their syrup for sale but “we don’t make sugar and all that other stuff.” Although the product is so seasonal, Suga’s remains open all year, in case some summer tourists want to stop for syrup. Normally he’d keep the store open for Maine Maple Sunday, but since it coincides with Easter, not this year.
HAPPY DAYS: Does he like running Suga’s? “Definitely. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t. We enjoy our customers and our customer base is always increasing. It is a way of life.”
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