Condea's Farm bigleaf maple syrup bottles on a table in the forest

About Condea's Farm

We are a small start-up farm producing bigleaf maple syrup with the goal of introducing and educating customers about this unique maple syrup from the Pacific Northwest corner of Oregon.

About Connie & Dean

Working over 37 years at a local papermill, we were looking for a way to start a business from home that was exciting and enjoyable. We incidentally heard about the production of bigleaf maple syrup, which has been researched by OSU’s Agricultural Extension Service since 2015.

Starting to Collect Sap

We decided to tap a few maple trees on our property. This began with four taps, producing approximately 12 gallons of sap after a weeks’ time to collect. Using a crab cooker, 8 gallons of propane, and a 10+ hour day to boil the sap, we produced 3oz of some incredible, robust-tasting maple syrup. Although we did not produce much syrup, it motivated us to learn more about producing at a larger scale.

Dean standing with Zoe next to a Condea Farm ATV

Finding Community

We attended the first-ever Oregon Maple Syrup Festival in 2023 at Salem, Oregon, hosted by OSU. At the festival, we met several emerging producers of bigleaf syrup and some of the research team from OSU. We went through a taste-test panel of approximately 15 to 20 different bigleaf maple syrup producers from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. What was surprising was the fact that each producer’s syrup had a distinctly different taste, very similar to the wine industry.

Bringing Condea's Farm to Life

After attending the festival and meeting the network of maple syrup producers and researchers from OSU, we were obsessed. We immediately began the process of making plans and building our business. Now, over a year into the process, we realize daily that this was what we had been looking for all along.

A Day on the Farm