Vermont Maple Syrup

My father, LaVern, was in the retail furniture business in Nappanee for 65 years. He’s now 92 and doing well, better when the Hoosiers, Colts, Irish, Bulls, and White Sox win. He and my mother, Lenore, started one of the first “Early American” furniture shops in the nation, selling solid maple furnishings. LaVern was a promoter extraordinaire. Yesterday I ran across a letter from Robert Coombs of Fancy Vermont Maple Products dated February 25, 1960. It included a price list for maple syrup, maple creams, pure maple leaves, and assorted packages. The letter was in response to an inquiry LaVern made to purchase these confections to give away to his loyal customers. We are still selling their Maple Sugar Products at Amish Acres 56 years later. An 8 oz. Pottery Jug of pure maple syrup sold for $1.50 then, it is now on our shelves for $6.95. Of course our maple syrup line has expanded to include local production from our Amish neighbors as well. We know spring has arrived when the first schoolbus pulls in for Maple Syrup Days and the boiling begins. There’s nothing like Vermont and Indiana maple syrup on the same pancake.