Runamok's Partner Producers
We produce our own maple syrup at our sugarbushes in Cambridge and Bolton but even with our 120,000 taps, we do not make enough for our needs. To ensure our supply, we partner with many other Vermont sugarmakers, buying maple syrup from producers who we know are passionate about their product and their land.
Since our expansion into honey, we’ve also started working with a select few apiaries across the country. Our co-founder Eric and our bee guide, Todd, traveled far and wide to find the country’s best tasting honey from family farms that are observing sustainable beekeeping practices.
Branon Family Maple Orchards
Fairfield, Vermont
Branon Family Maple Orchards is among the most respected maple producers in Vermont. The business is owned and operated by Tom and Cecile Branon and their sons, Kyle, Shane and Evan. Spanning over 4,000 acres of forest, they manage over 90,000 taps in the towns of Bakersfield and Fairfield. Tom is a 4th generation sugar maker who has worked in the woods for over 60 years.
As a kid he gathered sap with buckets using horses to deliver it to the sugarhouse. Their operation is considerably more modern today and they continue to pass down the family tradition to the next generation. When asked what sugaring in Vermont means to her, Cecile replied, “Vermont is a very special place and people all over the country relate it as a clean organic way of life.
Maple Syrup has become synonymous with Vermont which makes it a very special product with high standards and practices. It is a pride in itself to be considered a Vermont Sugarmaker, certified Organically and considered doing all the right things to protect and care for a gift we have been given.”
Ledge View Maple
Fletcher, Vermont
Ledge View Maple is owned by husband and wife team, Alan and Jennifer Cary. Their operation is nine years old but Alan has been working in and around the sugaring industry most of his life. In fact, he started with us here at Runamok when we were just getting our operation up and running, and contributed to everything from woods set-up to building construction.
With 16,500 taps on his own property in Fletcher, today they are a family operation, often getting help from their son, Trevor and other family members. They both participate in all the aspects of the business from tapping to running the evaporator. When asked about a favorite part of her property, Jen replied, “The lookout area on top of the mountain; and our second lot has beautiful views of Mt. Mansfield.”
Like many Vermonters, they wear many hats. Alan has a separate excavation business and Jen is a cosmetologist. But maple syrup is becoming a larger presence in their lives every year. Jen says, “We enjoy keeping the Vermont tradition alive, working as a family in the woods and Sugarhouse and it is a large portion of our annual income.”
Sidelands Sugarbush
Westminster, Vermont
Dan Crocker is the owner of Sidelands Sugarbush, Inc. Located in Westminster, Vermont, he works with 24,000 taps in his woods to produce some of the finest maple syrup you could taste. “It makes me happy to produce a wonderful tasting product which is more beneficial than other sugar products and helps the environment as well, by keeping the forest intact,” he explains.
Managing the operation in his woods for more than 40 years, he puts in the hours during sugaring season and then spends the whole summer getting ready for the next one. Like many Vermonters, he likes it in everything from his morning coffee to a midday smoothie. But his favorite use is over vanilla ice cream.
Winter Family Apiaries
Wolcott, NY
For more than 50 years, the Winter family has carried on the art of beekeeping, tending 2,000 to 2,500 hives that migrate with the seasons—from wildflowers in upstate New York to citrus groves in Florida and almond orchards in California. At the heart of it is Dan, who started keeping bees at just eight years old and now leads the family business while also serving as a voice for pollinators nationwide
His knowledge runs deep, from explaining how blossoms shape the flavor of honey to championing sustainable agriculture as a way to protect bees from threats like mites, pesticides, and habitat loss. Despite the challenges, his passion is infectious — he laughs off the constant bee stings and swears by grilled cheese with honey as his favorite indulgence.
In 2021, the family’s Autumn Blossom Raw Honey became our flagship Beekeeper’s Cut, a golden expression of generations of care and craft that we’re proud to share.
Winter Family Apiaries also produce our limited release Basswood Blossom Raw Honey.
JJ Spanier & David Fay
Wolcott, NY
Friends for over 16 years, J.J. Spanier and David Fay run one of our smallest but most beloved sugaring operations, tapping around 2,000 trees on J.J.’s land in Cambridge, Vermont. Both began making syrup as kids — J.J. with a jerry-rigged grill pan in New Jersey and Dave with “nine buckets and a pot” in New Hampshire — and found their way back to sugaring through a shared mentor, Fred Boyden, a seventh-generation Vermonter.
In 2016 they joined forces, renovating J.J.’s barn into a modern sugarhouse and weaving together their sap lines, but they’ve kept the scale intentionally modest, balancing syrup-making with their other work.
For J.J., sugaring is as much about tinkering with equipment and involving his kids as it is about the woods themselves—his favorite spot, “the middle chunk,” turns magical when the sun filters through the trees. Dave, meanwhile, brings his students from a special education school into the sugarbush each year, teaching them the craft while watching nature calm them within minutes.
Their syrup, often praised for its rich, buttery character, reflects not just the trees it comes from but also the care, tradition, and quiet joy these two friends pour into every season.
