Idea

[Jebediah]

I was thinking about pick-your-own operations (apples, blueberries, etc), and I had a thought--what about some kind of reserve-some-trees arrangement? With the kind of buckets that everyone recognizes. Maybe these same folks who like to pay premium prices to pick their own apples would also like to be able to point to ten (or twenty, or whatever) trees, and say "that sap is mine." And they can come to visit and collect the sap, if they want to. They could also do the tapping, I guess, if they wanted.

Probably a lot of barriers that I'm overlooking, but I thought I'd throw it out there regardless.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

It's a nice idea...similar to Tonewood maple's adopt-a-tree program. http://www.tonewoodmaple.com/

[Jebediah]

Wow very similar. I wonder how well it works.

[billyinvt]

I've always been amazed at what some people will pay for the "experience" of rural living. There's a lobster operation in Maine where people PAY to go out on the boat all day and work, and then PAY to take home a few of the lobsters they caught. I'd love to run something like this in the sugar woods. Pay me to help gather sap and then buy syrup at the end.

[BlueberryHill]

Pay me to help gather sap and then buy syrup at the end. I like that idea! Just need some slick marketing, haha.

[Jebediah]

I am aware of a place where you can pay $100 (or something) to send your child to sap-bucket-washing day-camp. In August.