About Us
Our History
Schoolyard Sugarbush began in the yard of a one-room schoolhouse in New Hope, New York as a homeschooling project. The century-old maple trees which lined the roadway were tapped with buckets and the sap was boiled on a wood-fired flat evaporator pan. With three generations having made and manufactured pancake mix in New Hope, the combination of pancakes and maple syrup was a natural one.
In 1991, Dan returned to New Hope from college and began to make maple syrup with his father, Donald. Every year improvements have been made and taps added.
In 1993, the first sugarhouse was built in New Hope housing a true wood-fired evaporator.
Dan and Holly married in 2008, and they own and operate the business today with their four daughters who like to help and “sample” products!
In 2011, a new sugarhouse was built in New Hope to accommodate new technology of Reverse Osmosis and to house the bottling and boiling center! This facility was a huge step forward in the growth of the maple business and in keeping up with the 15,000 taps that the business then operated.
In 2014, we were able to purchase an older dairy farm in Newfield, NY that had been abandoned and was mostly just a wooded hillside. This is our primary sugarbush and center of operations today. Larger woodlots are hard to find in our area of the country, so we have several sugarbush sites across four counties in the Fingerlakes Region of Central, NY. Our 45,000 taps keep us busy!
In 2021, the business and our family suffered an irreplaceable loss with the passing of Donald. Our woods and packaging crew continue to fill this void as Don had been the heart and soul of these areas for so many years.
Our current sugarhouse employs technology to assist in time savings and energy efficiency! We are happy to give tours during maple season at our roadside sugarhouse! Although the methods of collecting and boiling sap have changed over the years, one thing remains the same: quality maple syrup made by our family!
Dan & Holly Weed Family