The farm's main crop is between 600 and 800 gallons of N.O.F.A. Massachusetts Certified Organic Pure Maple Syrup, produced each year from sap collected from 3000 taps and boiled to perfection in the farm's 5' x 14', wood-fired evaporator in sugar house we built in 1986. The farm's maple trees have long been known in town for producing high quality syrup with outstanding flavor. In years when production is off due to weather or other causes, we will sometimes need to purchase syrup from other local producers. Whenever this happens, we emphasize buying excellent-flavored, Certified Organic syrup, or, at minimum, syrup produced without prohibited materials in the U.S.A. as close to our farm as possible. 

Norma handles virtually all of the sugaring set up, boiling, and cleanup, and all of the packaging into retail containers. She is one of the very few full-time female sugar makers in the state. Now that Bill is semi-retired from UMass, he helps as well, as does son Jubal. Bill handles the majority of deliveries to various retail outlets.

Retail Outlets

Blue Heron Farm USDA Certified Organic Pure Maple Syrup can be found at numerous locations throughout Massachusetts, including: Hannaford Brothers Supermarkets (formerly Victory Supermarkets) in Leominster, Fitchburg, Marlboro, Hudson, Clinton, North Brookfield, Uxbridge, Milton, Waltham, Norwood, Norwell and Kingston, Mass., Big Y Supermarkets in Greenfield, Amherst, Northampton, Southampton, Westfield (2 stores), South Hadley, Springfield (3 stores), Adams, North Adams, Pittsfield, Great Barrington, West Springfield, East Longmeadow, Chicopee, Palmer and Ludlow, Mass., Atkins Farm Country Market in Amherst, MA, and Avery's General Store in Charlemont, MA. Our syrup is also available through South River Miso Co..

How to Order

Grade A syrup is also available in sizes from ½ pint to gallon through mail order, either UPS ground or U.S. Postal Service 2-3 day Priority Mail. If you decide to order, please email us at info@blueheronfarm.com and provide the size(s) and grade(s) you are interested in, the number of each size, and your full mailing address including zip code and a day time phone number. We will then email back with costs for shipping and handling plus the syrup.

For ½ gallon and gallon orders, we can save you substantial money by using US Postal Service Flat Rate Priority Mail containers that can hold 1-2 of the half gallon sizes. As of May 11, 2009, they ship anywhere in the country (as well as to Military APOs) for $9.80, plus $0.70 for tracking/delivery confirmation, $1.75 insurance and $2.00 handling ($14.25 total). 

Mail Order Payment

For over 20 years we have used the honor system whereby we pack and ship to order then email you with the USPS Tracking Number as proof of shipment. Upon receipt of that email, we ask that you mail us the full amount due within 24 hours as a check or money order made out to Blue Heron Farm. Our mailing address is: 8 Warner Hill Rd., Charlemont, MA 01339. 

We are sometimes asked "Isn't all maple syrup organically produced?" Surprisingly, the answer is "No". As part of the Certification process, we keep detailed records of all materials used either in the sugarbush itself, or in the production and packaging of the syrup. In order to conform to USDA Organic Certification Standards, we tap our trees according to guidelines and use other wood lot management practices that are designed to maintain the long term health of the trees. We do not over tap our trees! We also do not use prohibited materials, such as the formaldehyde tablets still used occasionally (and most importantly illegally) in some parts of Canada, or synthetic defoamers used to keep syrup pans from boiling over, or certain cleaners that can leave undesirable residues in syrup equipment. We also have voluntarily converted all of our equipment to lead-free stainless steel to eliminate possible presence of lead in finished syrup. Because of the methods we use to make syrup, our syrup is suitable for those who keep Kosher or Halal.

All 3000 taps set by the farm are on a food-grade tubing and most use the new, small diameter spouts that are better for maintaining tree health. The operation was upgraded in 2003 by addition of lead free, cross-flow syrup pans, a new, lead-free packaging system, a pressure syrup filtration unit, and a reverse osmosis (R.O.) machine.

The R. O. Machine

The R.O. Machine dramatically reduces the boiling time by extracting water molecules. is a device that mechanically removes some of the water from the pure maple sap by pushing the sap through a special membrane that has holes large enough to allow water molecules through, but not the larger sugar molecules. The R.O. allows us to dramatically reduce the amount of boiling time needed to make syrup. To illustrate, sap right out of the tree varies in sugar content from tree-to-tree and from year-to-year. In most years, sap has an average sugar content of around 2-3%. Using the "Rule of 86", if one starts with sap that is 2% sugar, then 43 gallons of water (86 ÷ 2 = 43) must be evaporated to make one gallon of "standard density syrup" (66% sugar-the remainder is water, minerals and other naturally occurring plant compounds). However, after one pass through the R.O. machine, sap can be concentrated up to 10% sugar. Doing the math shows that one need only evaporate 8.6 gallons of water to make that same gallon of standard density syrup if starting with sweeter sap. Use of the R.O. machine has meant that we now burn about 5-6 cords annually of slab wood (waste product of sawmills) rather than the 35-40 cords we used previously. All tubing is cleaned at the end of the season by pushing a very mild bleach solution through the tubing using a special pump that mixes air into the water to scrub the tubing interior walls.