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Debbie
Richards |
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Debbie
Richards |
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The
heart of Ohio’s maple syrup country, Geauga County has not changed much since
Debbie Richards’ grandparents began producing maple syrup at Richards Maple
Products in 1910. But Debbie has made changes to the farm that once survived
solely on sales of its purest product and turned it into Ohio’s largest maple
syrup manufacturer with products like maple barbecue sauce, maple caramel corn,
and maple flavored beef jerky.
Background.
The process of making syrup is still not a quick one, though technology has
helped speed the laborious process of turning watery sap into pure maple syrup.
Pipelines connect the trees in Richards’ sugarbush (the wooded area from which
sap is collected) and save time by channeling the collected sap into one massive
storage tank. The collected sap is then piped into the “evaporator,” where
it is boiled down from 45 gallons of sap into 1 gallon of sweet, pure maple
syrup. Debbie
said the sap must be boiled daily because raw sap "will
spoil just as quickly as milk.”
Advancements
in Marketing.
Richards found that a little creativity would add value to the maple syrup and
open the door to niche markets. Debbie has worked to expand the company’s
product line to include pure maple candy, caramel corn, suckers, peanut brittle,
cereal-based snack mix, and maple “fudge.” The growth in niche product
marketing means that it takes more employees to fill the demand during the
holiday season, up to 15 from the normal 10 part- and full-time employees. The
growth has also helped Debbie expand the business by about 25 percent. She hopes
to add maple mustard and maple salad dressing to the product line in the near
future.
Benefits to the Agriculture Community. Most of the maple syrup used in the products and bottled as pure maple syrup is purchased in bulk from neighboring maple syrup producers. Richards said that most farmers in the area consider the syrup as their first crop of the year. She purchases some of the syrup from the Amish families in the area. For them, the company drops off the drums and picks them up.
Benefits
to the Non-Agriculture Community.
Debbie is actively involved in putting together the Geauga County Maple Syrup
Festival, the second oldest festival in Ohio and one of the oldest and largest
maple syrup festivals in the country. She coordinates the judging of the maple
syrup that is brought in by more than 100 producers from all over the state.
Awards at the maple syrup festival are considered prestigious by commercial
producers, because award-winning producers gain a lot of publicity. The
community turns out in droves for the festival, bringing in guests from hundreds
of miles away. Not only do they get a taste of the sweet maple syrup in all its
many forms, they get to experience an age-old tradition and time with their
family. This year’s festival is scheduled for April 24-27th in
Chardon.
Farming
Philosophy. Richards focuses her efforts
on building and diversifying the niche markets her products serve. She
participates in the OHIO PROUD program, which is administered by the Ohio
Department of Agriculture and identifies food and agricultural products that are
at least 50 percent raised, grown, or processed in Ohio. Though OHIO PROUD is a
statewide program, Richards puts most of her effort in marketing to Northeast
Ohio.