The Orebed Sugar Shack

The first year we produced syrup together in 2002 we had approximately 500 buckets and the rest were collected on gravity tubing. Our daughters, Brianne and Courtney, usually had already made two trips to the woods gathering with a 4-wheeler and trailer by the time we got home from work. When we got home we collected the remaining buckets together.... We then collected from the eight collection stations that were fed, via the tubing draining, into fifty-five gallon barrels while the girls began their high school homework. As the girls got older, and college was very near for Brianne, and Courtney (being only three years younger) decisions had to be made. We came to the conclusion that we were ready for change. We weren't going to have the womanpower we were used to counting on. We moved the sugarhouse to a renovated horse barn in 2006 and had 960 taps using vacuum lines, and for the first time, sap was brought directly to the sugar house. Sap was, and still is, filtered and processed with a reverse osmosis (RO). Boiling of the sap was, and still is, done in a 3x8 oil-fired evaporator with pre-heater, hood and an automatic draw off. It wasn't long and our business once again expanded and a new sugarhouse with radiant (in floor) heat was built. It was a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but with help of family and friends, we used it for the first time in 2008. There have been many upgrades made. We now have 1,410 taps on vacuum. Sap is now sterilized prior to entering the reverse osmosis (RO); we purchased an energy efficient evaporator and we also included a large, uniquely decorated room to host groups, tours, and visitors. We hot pack all our syrup so you are assured the finest product on the market.Read More