After the most challenging conditions we have encountered in our 15 year history of maple syrup production, the 2025 sugaring season has finally begun at Waterfall Farm.
Tropical Storm Helene blasted through Ashe county on Friday morning, September 27, 2024, leaving a trail of destruction like nothing anyone from around here had ever seen before. Here are Waterfall Farm, we dodged complete disaster, all things considered. Though nearly fifty trees uprooted and crashed all around, the only loss of property was a work van, which was nearly chopped in two by the weight of a mature American Beech tree. Trees fell all around our houses and buildings, but none of our structures were damaged, miraculously.
A beech tree fell on the van and an uprooted oak fell across the road. The oak blocked Doug in for 4 days and was a near-miss with the leather shop.
We were able to clear most the downed trees on our road immediately, but one of the largest and oldest trees on the farm fell in the middle of the road on the hill up to Doug’s place and the sugar house. It took us four days to coordinate an effort to get that tree out of the way, and that section of the road open.
Everyone in our community was hit hard but Helene, especially those closer to the creeks and rivers below. It was the worst disaster in living memory. Homes were shredded by the water, bridges were taken out, power poles snapped in half and lines were down all over, and roads were simply missing in certain places. The nearby town of Lansing had water up to the ceilings in some of its commercial buildings. Cell signal and local radio went down for many days and we were without power for 15 days. Our belief that we live in a place that is somewhat insulated from natural disasters was destroyed along with so many things in our community. Floods here in the mountains wreck everything in their path. Valleys and hollers were gutted by the onslaught of water leaving behind a mess of saturated and unrecognizable belongings and ruins.
The first weeks after the storm, we did our part to help those in the area that were most adversely affected. We were deeply moved by the way in which this county banded together to help one another, and mitigate and fix the damage from this disaster. Beyond that, so many people travelled a great distance to come help those in need. The overall display of generosity and goodwill was inspiring. In the first hours and days after the storm we were overwhelmed by the damages we sustained on the farm, but as we ventured out into the community, helping others empty their homes of all that had been ruined by the floodwaters, it made us see that we were lucky to have only a large mess of trees to resolve.
One of many complicated and dangerous tangles of fallen trees in the sugar bush.
Once the volunteer efforts were slowing down in other places, we started to look more closely at the damage to our sugar bush. The woods in the lower zone were simply a tangled a mess of downed trees and bent tubing. At first, the loss looked insurmountable. After a more thorough investigation, however, we recognized that most of the destruction occurred in the lower half of the woods. It seems that a more localized burst of wind damage occurred in a specific area on the farm. The upper zones, which hold maybe 2/3 of our total taps, were nearly untouched! This came as an extraordinary relief. The lower zone was still a daunting task to clear and repair, but much more accessible to repair than our upper zone. All of the trees, the wrecked tubing and and pipes, and the wire that suspended the entire system would need to be repaired or replaced in time for the start of the sugaring season just three months away.
Friends and neighbors, grassroots volunteers, numerous volunteer relief organizations, convoys of linesmen and rock trucks the National Guard, FEMA and more all jumped into motion to respond to the disaster. Our needs here at Waterfall, while overwhelming to us, seemed inconsequential compared to the needs of our larger community. Early on our friend Sara Ford heard about the damage to our farm and offered to send volunteers in her contact network to come help us clear downed trees. We declined. There was more urgent help needed in other places. She quietly passed our need along and it ended up in the hands of the High Country Food Hub and Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture who stepped up to the plate after the storm, organizing volunteers and matching them with farms in need of help. On Tuesday, October 8th, Michael set out into the woods for the first time to start chipping away at the tree work in the sugar bush. We were resigned to the possibility that sugar season might not happen for us this year, or if so, happen in an abbreviated way. After an hour of working alone, Wheeler received an entirely unexpected phone call from the Food Hub, saying, “we have three volunteers with chainsaws and timber-cutting experience ready to head your way.” At that time, we didn’t even know that they knew about our problems. We were near tears with gratitude.
Volunteers pausing for lunch. This and so many other meals were provided by grassroots groups who set up throughout our community providing meals in the effort to support storm recovery.
That week, on two separate occasions, we had a a volunteer crew with as many as five chainsaws running at once, and at least that many people again helping us cut and drag brush off and away from the maple lines. By the end of those two days, we had cleared a path for almost all of the lower zone to be rebuilt. Without this help, we would not have been able to get this finished in our short, three month window of time. A very special thanks goes out to Lauren and Travis Hutchins of Boone, and Kyle Jones of North Georgia who’s skillful saw work neutralized countless dangerous tangles of fallen trees that were far beyond our ability to approach. A special thanks also to Jason Fitzgerald, Bailey Arend, Erin Etheridge, James Helms, and many others who’s names we did not quite capture but to whom we are forever grateful.
Day 2 tapping crew Bella, Michael, Bailey, Jason (& Wheeler who was taking the picture.)
From there, Michael and Jason spent the remainder of the year getting the lower zone of tubing back into the air, and connected to all of the trees. This task was finally finished by the first week of January. Just in time.
We tackled the tapping portion of our season a little differently this year. We had two, different tapping crews our of friends on Friday and Saturday, January 17th and 18th. With nearly six inches of snow still on the ground from the arctic blast in early 2025, we moved slowly from tap to tap. Having not yet had time to make any of the expected, routine repairs to the upper zone, Michael followed behind the tapping crew with a repair kit, and focused his efforts on repairing anything that we encountered as we went along. Although we certainly lost a few of our maples in the hurricane, we believe that we have nearly the same number of taps in as the year before.
Day 1 tapping crew: Michael, Tyler, Wheeler, Doug Spell & Jason setting out to tap in 6” of snow.
Before the storm we had an expansion underway in the woods, working towards adding new taps to our system. But we were unable to complete that expansion in the wake of storm repairs, and that is OK. We are content with the idea that this may not be biggest or best year that we have ever had. Given all that we have been through this year, we are just thrilled to be put back together and have the opportunity to make maple syrup again.
It is now early February and temperatures have lifted from our long freeze. Sap is starting to come in and we have made or first runs of they year of syrup. It is as delicious as ever.
Save the Date!
Mark your calendars. Our annual syrup release will be at Molley Chomper in Lansing, NC on Saturday March 15th. We have some fun new things to add to the event this year and we’ll tell you all about it soon so stay tuned! We hope to see you there. In the event of inlclement weather on the 15th, our rain date will be Saturday March 29th.