Tom St. Pierre, loan officer from our St. Albans office, was on a Maple Sugaring Panel at Cold Hollow Career Center (CHCC) in Enosburg Falls on 2/1/2012. CHCC has a maple operation as part of their program and they wanted a panel of industry experts to educate the students on what it would take to establish their own operation after graduation. The conference room at CHCC was packed with 75 plus students, panelists, parents, and teachers, totaling almost 90 people.
Joining Tom on the panel were Karen Fortin of Carman Brook Farm who talked about marketing; Nancy Patch, Franklin County Forester who talked about how to keep the sugarbush healthy; David Butler from Leader Evaporator talked about the maple equipment needed and costs. Tom discussed business planning; financial planning; funding for loans; and overall commitment of a sugaring operation.
