Ripple Rd. Maple Products;The Retail Division of Walling Family Sugarhouse

08/02/2026

This is something we have been putting off for a few years. The anchor tree all the mainlines in our small woods are hooked to died about 5 years ago. We cut it off 7' in the air back then so it didn't fall on everything, but it had gotten to the point where it was pretty rotten and not going to hold much longer. The worst part is there were no trees in line any direction within 200' so we had to extend the wires. The terrain is so steep there, the anchors ended up being 20-30' in the air to keep the elevation correct and they had to be installed with an extension ladder. This is 1500' from the pumphouse and not accessible by atv, so everything had to be carried by hand. Another maintenance task complete and one step closer to the 2027 season.

07/02/2026

Illinois followers, see you this Saturday 9-noon at Historic Farmer’s Market & Music On The Porch !

06/25/2026

An early summer update into what's been going on since season ended....we've been BUSY! In order to maintain high production yields every season, a lot of off season work needs to be put in. We've changed out a third(3,000) of our droplines as we do every year. This keeps our drops never older than 3 years, which limits the amount of bacteria and microbes in the tubing system and produces higher sap yields and better quality syrup. We have been working on mainlines as well, rerouting some and redoing some end ties that have started to grow into trees. The tubing system requires constant maintenance so it keeps performing like new every year. A big task at hand now is to start eliminating all the dead ash trees the emerald ash borer has killed. In the next 5-10 years these dead trees will cause problems, falling on the tubing infrastructure if we don't cut them now. We have started on the edges, cutting the biggest ones that are leaning over the buildings, sugarhouse and pump house. We will have enough firewood for the next few years and the dead limbs will rot into the forest floor, making fertile soil. The sugarhouse has a fresh coat of stain on it and we have been busy bottling syrup for our customers and stores. The self serve cabinet at the sugarhouse remains open every day. We'll soon be making our summer trips out west, so all you Midwest followers send us a message if you are in need of maple products and we'll catch up with you!

04/28/2026

We spent last Friday and Saturday in Eden, VT at Goodrich's Maple Farm showcasing Becker pumps. We even got to see the 130,000 tap operation boil for the last couple times of the season. We saw a lot of sugarmakers from a lot of different states and enjoyed talking maple! Looking for a new Becker vacuum pump? Now is the time! Take 10% off any pump or pump system until the end of May! We have single pumps that will fit your operation from 100- 43,000 taps.

04/18/2026

Final day of spout pulling today. All the taps are out of the trees! Another week of cleanup in the sugarhouse and a few more pieces of equipment to service and the 2026 season will be complete! Then on to preparing for next year.

04/18/2026

If you're up at the maple open houses in St. Albans next weekend, stop by Goodrich's in Eden and see us!

Come see Becker at Goodrich Maple Farm!! 🍁

Becker is happy to announce that we will once again be showcasing a couple pumps for the St. Albans Festival next weekend. This year Goodrich Maple Farm in Eden has kindly welcomed us into their operation to set up for the weekend and show our pumps. Chris Goodrich from Goodrich Maple Service and Neil Walling from Ripple Rd. Maple Products;The Retail Division of Walling Family Sugarhouse will be there to answer any questions and provide any information you need for your pumps.

Please stop by if you plan on being in the area to check out the Goodrich Maple Farm operation or if you wanted to talk to your Becker friends.

We will be there Friday April 24th and Saturday April 25th from 10am-3PM.

We will send another reminder next week as well. Look forward to seeing everyone and hearing how your seasons went!

04/16/2026

Since our last boil last Friday, we've been pulling taps, servicing equipment and cleaning up. This season was one of the better ones in recent years. We harvested and processed 414, 204 gallons of sap with an overall sap per tap of 46.02. We made 5588 gallons of syrup for an average of 6.83 lbs. of syrup per tap. With a 74:1 ratio, the sap was quite a bit sweeter than last year where it was closer to 90:1. Once again, our main woods ran the most sap per tap at 47.3gpt. This woods is where we do our December tapping, hence the higher sap per tap. This shows that tapping early and keeping a tight system, there is no loss at the end. Our other high vacuum woods came in at 44.7gpt and our 3/16" gravity natural vacuum ended at 37.2gpt. Overall it was a solid season, highlighted by huge runs, bringing us almost to our breaking point both physically and mentally.

04/11/2026

April 10. Final steam of the 2026 season. It's bittersweet, but at the same time a relief. Mother nature provided us with the right weather and we made a great crop of syrup. What a phenomenal season!

04/05/2026

Happy Easter to our friends, customers and acquaintances!

04/01/2026

There is never a dull moment when it comes to sugaring. We had just finished with last night's boil during an awful lightning storm. All of a sudden, there was a loud pop that sounded like a gunshot and everything in the sugarhouse shut off. Lightning had hit a hi- tensile wire on a mainline running into our pumphouse. It broke the wire in half, melting it into the mainline and traveled back to the pumphouse. From there, it put 2 holes in the metal roof, melting a light wire inside the building. It destroyed the contactor in the reset box to the vacuum pump and from there, traveled back to the sugarhouse tripping the drive on the vacuum pump in sugarhouse. Luckily, nothing in the sugarhouse was damaged. We are waiting on another contactor, hoping it didn't also destroy the drive on that pump. I think ahead and plan for situations like this so I had a spare Becker vacuum pump all plumbed in to a separate moisture trap in the sugarhouse with a designated vacuum line traveling back to pumphouse. In less than 5 minutes we were back up and running. This situation definitely could have been a lot worse. It's a good thing it's nearing the end, we are physically and mentally drained.