Who We Are: A little about the Williams Farms family operation
Williams Farms is a family business; for over 25 years producing the finest
in Vermont maple syrup. We are Rob and Lucille Williams and our son Kevin and
his wife, Debbie.
Grandson Keith, age 21, plays a large role in all parts of the operation.
Kevin's children, Reuben, 10, and daughter Whitney, 7, help out in any way they
can.
Bottom to top, and left to right: Reuben, Whitney, Lucille, Rob, and Kevin.
Other family members and friends also help out on occasion. When we retire, the business will become
the sole responsibility of Kevin. He, in turn, hopes to pass it along to his
children.
In fact, it was Kevin who was responsible for starting the business in the
first place. We were dairy farmers all our married life until we sold out the
dairy business during a herd buyout in 1986. In the Vermont dairy business,
March and April are as free of "must do" jobs as any time of the year;
so, in 1976, when teenage Kevin asked us to start making syrup from the maples
on the farm, we agreed.
The first year we had only a small evaporator in the sugar house for making
syrup. The sap was collected in buckets.
Kevin left soon after for a stint in the air force. We continued the maple
business; hiring neighborhood kids to collect the sap from 500 buckets while we
boiled the sap to syrup. Kevin returned in 1979 and has been with the business
ever since.
In the early 1980's, we began modernizing and expanding: phasing out the
buckets and converting to plastic tubing for collecting the sap. We enlarged the
sugar house and purchased a larger evaporator and other more modern equipment.
By that time, we were winning many ribbons and awards for the quality of our
maple products.
In addition to tapping our own sugar bush, we lease another in Lincoln,
Vermont; where we collect from 2,100 trees. We recently purchased another lot
with a potential 1000 taps; which we expect to start sugaring in the near
future.
Lucille makes the homemade maple fudge, cream, and cakes that we sell in
addition to syrup. Most of our sales are made from a shop in our home or through
our mail order business, and now through this Web site. We ship all over the
country.
When we began sugaring, we thought that it would just be a fun thing to do;
but it's really grown into a great business.
Copyright © 2000, 2005 Kevin Williams and Williams Farms | 
Blue
Ribbon Vermont Maple
