Mount View Sugar Bush is named after the road that we grew up on, which had a view of Rib Mountain near Wausau. My two brothers and I grew up on a small farm in central Wisconsin; when my youngest brother graduated high school, he looked for something to do during the day as he worked second shift. He tapped 400 trees in a neighbor's woods near our farm and sold the sap. He held back 40 gallons on the last day, and my two brothers cooked it down to about 1 gallon of syrup.
We found an old arch and had some pans made. Unfortunately, the neighbor had the woods clear cut during the following winter, so we scrambled to find another woods, which we did in time to have our first syruping season.
Over time we grew bigger and acquired better equipment. We finally moved to our uncle's 40 in an area known as the Newwood area, west of Merrill, WI. We tap in two 40s there, which is where our sugar shack is, plus in another 80 and 40 that we own located 13 miles away in Price county.
Our woods crew consists of my two brothers and I, our Dad, our uncle, my two sons ( Nick, 10 and Nate, 8 ), my brother's neighbor, and our wives when they feel like it. Our mom helps with the bottling back in civilization. We sell our product at various Farmers' Markets, mom and dad's ice cream shop, and to our long list of repeat customers that we have developed over the years.
I owe a lot of our success to my brother Ryan, who is the best engineer I have ever seen. He keeps us and the whole operation running. Every year we get a little bigger and a little smarter.
Russell Berg
Mount View Sugar Bush - Since 1989
2004 5.5' x 18' Custom-built Stainless Evaporator w/ 7' Piggyback + Preheater
4,000 - 5,000 taps vacuum/gravity/bags
24' x 32' Sugar Shack