by Becky Thomas,

Dan and Debra Tassier
2875 Swede Road
Cedarville, MI 49719-9774
(906) 484-3219
http://www.tassiersugarbush.com

Dan and Debra Tassier have been making syrup since 1988, at a mother’s urging. “It was Mom’s suggestion,” said Debra, “‘Why don’t you make maple syrup?’ she asked one day.” They had lived on the land for 12 years by then; and, as usual, Mom is always right. That year 180 taps went up – it’s just gotten bigger and better since then.

The Tassiers now have about 1600 taps and produced 750 gallons of syrup last spring. With the help of family and friends, and an RO machine, Dan and Debra boil the sap using fuel oil. “When the price of fuel oil went up and few years ago and the sugar content [of sap] went down, we decided to invest in the RO machine.” Debra states that it saves them time and just added to the efficiency of the vacuum system they already had in place.
Today they have an active website for orders, as well as a few retail places nearby. “We ship all over the country,” she said. In addition to syrup, they also produce cream, candy, granulated sugar, and a special maple vingerette dressing. “It’s a lot more than I anticipated,” Debra added.

With a good customer base and the family around, Debra said that one of her favorite memories was when the girls (now 23 and 25 years old) were little. She described how they would get tired during the process of boiling the sap down. “They’d be sleeping on the shelves in the saphouse; each one had a shelf.”