BY BOB ETTINGER and DEE RILEY
Gazette Newspapers
JEFFERSON – There’s a thriving business that flies under most radars the upper corner of the state, and the Maple Producers of Northeast Ohio are aiming to change that.
The How Sweet It Is! Ohio Maple Trail invited people to take a self-guided tour hosted of the maple producers’ sugarhouses during the first two weekends of March.
In Ashtabula County, Bissell Maple Farm in Jefferson participated on Saturday, March 7, and Sunday, March 8, while Sap Run Distillery at Stone Maple Farm in Rome Township participated on March 7 and will participate on Saturday, March 14.
“For us, especially, with how much we’ve grown Maple Madness, it’s definitely part of reaching out to the community,” Brandy Martin, office administrator at Bissell Maple Farm, said. “We’re not open to the public anymore, so it’s important for us to continue to engage with the community that really built Bissell Maple Farm. It’s really a tradition for Nate and the Bissell family.”
Bissell Maple Farm’s event, held in the Expo Building at the Ashtabula County Fairgrounds, featured a pancake breakfast, tours of the nearby Bissell Maple Farm facility, vendors, raffle baskets and samples.
Live music by Lyle Heath, playing and singing some familiar tunes on a guitar, accompanied the line-up of breakfast people served pancakes and sausage with a generous pouring of local maple syrup. Drinks were also provided. Saturday’s count was near 800 meals.
A craft show lined the sides of the room offering everything from knitted goods, baked goods, handmade items, soaps, jewelry, video games, arts, Girl Scout Cookies, etc.
“With the fellowship of the vendors and the tours, it was a great success,” said Jessica Bailey, a Bissell employee manning the front tasting counter.
Hosting the Bissell Maple Farm event at the fairgrounds was an easy choice.
“(The Bissells) started doing Maple Madness back at their farm, many, many, many years ago,” Martin said. “It’s only gotten bigger. When I kind of took over planning the event, moving it to the fairgrounds was a no brainer to me, to have more space, then we incorporated the craft vendors to give something to people, a little more to do than just come in and eat pancakes, but mainly to give back to the community. We want to be able to see people. Our doors are locked now, and we don’t really get to see anybody that walks in anymore.”
The Ohio Maple Trail is a way to help people understand the business.
“We have a lot of people that stop in and ask what we’re doing during non-maple season,” Martin said. “Really, non-maple season is our busiest season because we’re packers, so we have like 40,000 to 80,000 pounds of syrup shipped in every single week. We’re bottling and sending out to grocery stores all over the United States and a lot of the people in the community don’t realize that. They kind of wonder what’s going on in that building that says it’s a farm and it’s not really a farm. We’re selling a lot of syrup.”
Bissell Maple Farm has shifted its focus in recent years from producing its own syrup to producing and bottling syrup made from trees tapped in other states.
“(The Bissell) family is from here, and they did have the original tree farm, but we bottle more syrup than the State of Ohio produces,” Martin said. “We have syrup brokers in Vermont, Wisconsin, New York and Michigan. We’ve partnered up with some brokers up there that get their syrup from smaller syrup farmers and then ship it down to us.”
The Bissell Maple Farm’s production process is slightly different from its inception, but it is still the product that’s known and loved throughout the country.
“This year, we’ve become bottlers more,” Martin said. “We do get the syrup shipped in. It’s not always a finished product. It’s syrup, it’s not sap, but it comes in unfinished and what that means is it still needs to get tested for sugars. They classify the colors of it. And then our production manager goes in and does the blends to make different kinds of syrup, the delicious syrup that we use.”
The event allowed Bissell to promote itself to members of the community.
“We definitely want them to know that we’re in all the grocery stores,” Martin said. “I feel like, the last few years, the public has really turned more towards healthy foods. They also need to know that they can use maple syrup instead of fake sugars. You can use it as sweeteners in coffee and teas and baking.”
The employees at Bissell Maple Farm enjoy having the public in for the event.
“I love it, which is the reason I plan it,” Martin said. “I think the team really enjoys getting to see (the public). The bottling team, a lot of the times, is in the back of the building, and they don’t get to see all the customers, whether it’s wholesale or retail. I think that it’s just fun to come together as a team and get out of the office and production atmosphere and come hang out and see people and feed people and laugh.”
Tours of the nearby Bissell Maple Farm production facility were given every half hour led by Nate Bissell.
Bissell described how his life started in the maple syrup business with the meeting of a Sharpesville girl in college. His dad was the botanist and loved growing plants and gardening. Bissell found that he didn’t have to plant or weed trees, and maples produced the first crop of the year. The syrup production grew too big for the back yard when tubing replaced buckets and they hired employees. They put seven additions on the sugar house.
After an Anderson tour bus showed up in their yard with mom in her robe, that was the end of that. Bissell found the old GE building in Jefferson 10 years ago where they now bottle maple syrup. The syrup gets its color through evaporation and caramelization (burnt sugar). There are 150 area families that make the product.
With his great ability to sell, now Bissell is into manufacturing equipment.
To his amazement, Bissell Maple Farm and Nate Bissell are famous in Vermont. Their YouTube channel response is overwhelming. He has entered international competitions and is always turned down because he is considered unconventional. He proudly frames his rejections.
The bourbon-barrel syrup is made in white oak barrels with a one-time use only. They are then used in Scotland for their scotch…barrels have to be American white oak. A new variety introduced this year is Nate’s Hot Maple, infused with Chile mash.
The Maple Madness weekend is an annual affair that the Bissell Farm enjoys and shares with the community thanks to the generosity of the family and employees.
