Baird Farm Maple

Bob Baird remembers standing on his tiptoes to peer into sap buckets as a tyke and then watching the clear liquid transform into syrup on the kitchen stove. Decades later, his daughter, Jenna Baird, would tumble off the bus after school and do her homework in the warm, fragrant sugarhouse while her dad hovered over the steaming evaporator pans.

For the last 104 years, the Baird family has been tapping sugar maples and making Vermont gold (and amber and dark robust) on their hillside farm in Chittenden. Bob Baird built a new sugarhouse while still in college in 1973, on the site where his grandmother’s first sugarhouse stood. Bob and his wife, Bonnie, bought the family farm in 1979, where the young couple also raised dairy cows.

Jenna Baird and her partner, Jacob Powsner, both 31, now run the retail end of Baird Farm. The duo has been together since they were freshmen in the Rutland High School orchestra. (“Jacob played standup bass and I played cello,” Jenna clarifies.) After Jenna graduated from UVM and Jacob from Bard College, they spent nearly two years traveling across the country and working on farms in California and Oregon. The couple returned to Vermont in late 2015 to help Bob with the sugaring season. That winter solidified their commitment to the farm. They built a new retail shop just down the hill from the family farmhouse and stepped up their marketing, largely through social media. After seven years of being back on the farm, Jenna and Jacob will be purchasing the maple production business from Bob, making Jenna the fourth generation to steward the 237-acre sugarbush.

Each generation has introduced innovations and taken the farm to new levels. Bob shifted from buckets to tubing in 1974 and, later, incorporated a reverse osmosis and vacuum system. Jenna and Jacob have expanded the retail line, adding maple sugar, maple ketchup, and infused syrups. “Bob’s still not sure if he likes the flavored syrups, but he tolerates them,” Jacob says with a grin, while Bob stands at his elbow, laughing and nodding his head in agreement.

A family that works and plays together can also pleasantly disagree. “We’re learning to deal with generational differences and approaches,” Jenna notes. “However, we all communicate well and are pretty flexible, respectful, and open to listening. Plus, we enjoy each other!” That’s evident in the playful and humorous videos and photos that Jacob and Jenna post regularly on social media. (If you’re looking for a heartwarming rabbit hole, check out the Baird Farm YouTube channel.) “We tend to make any event into a video opportunity,” Jacob says. “I think it keeps us laughing and sane, and Bob is a perfect comic foil!”

“But in all seriousness,” Jacob continues, “Bob and Bonnie have an established farm and business and deep connections in Vermont agriculture. We acknowledge that the chips are in our favor.” Jenna adds, “That also means there’s definite pressure to maintain those high standards and connections while we incorporate new visions and approaches.”

For the last 104 years, the Baird family has been tapping sugar maples and making Vermont gold (and amber and dark robust) on their hillside farm in Chittenden. 

Bonnie Baird, Bob Baird, Jenna Baird, and Jacob Powsner, always ready to ham it up for the camera

The Bairds currently tap more than 14,000 trees and produced well over a half-gallon of certified organic syrup per tap in 2022. Bob sells about 30 percent of that in 40-gallon stainless steel drums to Butternut Mountain Farm in Morrisville, one of Vermont’s largest maple processors. Jenna and Jacob bottle the rest to sell in their retail shop and through their website. The young couple also love to cook and experiment, and that led to their creation of a trio of Whole Woods infused syrups that have gained a devoted following. “We’ve developed products that capture the taste of this place. In keeping with our environmental ethos, we use wild foraged elements from the farm, such as spruce tips, birch bark, and mint,” Jacob explains. Jenna agrees. “People are more willing to experiment beyond the breakfast table. These infused syrups are fantastic in cooking and in cocktails.”

The spruce tip syrup offers notes of citrus, pine, and rosemary; birchbark tastes like a root beer float; mint maple syrup conjures melted mint Oreos. Want to spruce up your gin and tonic? Add a splash of spruce tip– or mint-infused syrup along with a squeeze of lime and swap sparkling soda for tonic. Or stir up a refreshing Maple Tea Drop made with green tea, vodka, birchbark, or mint-infused syrup, and a fresh lime wedge. Toss your favorite mixed nuts with some spruce tip syrup, orange juice, chipotle powder, or cinnamon, and roast for about 20 minutes. Another Baird Farm product, Maple Ketchup, cries out for a juicy burger.

Baird Farm offers tours and tastings four days a week year-round. “It’s a lively, educational tour,” Jacob says, referring to himself as a sugar nerd. “We want people to see how sugaring is done now. We’re a state-of-the-art operation with high-tech equipment that we can monitor through our phones.” Jacob or Jenna bring visitors out to see the trees, tubing, and taps, and the tour ends at the giant holding tank in the sugarhouse, followed by a tasting. Other popular events include Burger Nights in late July and again in the fall, featuring grass-fed beef from Hamilton Cattle Co., and Maple Open House weekend in late March. “We made rosemary waffles this year, and more than 900 folks showed up! We went through 25 gallons of batter and who knows how much syrup,” Jenna recalls, still amazed.

Jenna and Jacob clearly thrive with all this activity. “I love the varied routines, from getting the sugarbush ready in late fall to tapping and boiling,” Jenna says. “Then we bottle year-round and tend the marketing and retail aspects.” And Jacob? “We’re living a dream, making maple syrup in Vermont. Lots of folks save up and do this as a retirement project, but we get to build the lives we want, right here and now.”

Sounds pretty sweet.

• bairdfarm.com