A Couple Last Words on the Maple Grove Tours

One of the most satisfying aspects of my chamber job is that I get to revisit my childhood almost every single day of the year. Whether it is walking by the building where Mom used to teach school, still being scared by the lions that guard the Fairbanks Museum or taking a moment  to contemplate life on a bench in Lyndonville’s Bandstand Park, I am constantly reminded how incredibly special this region is.

On a recent trip to Maple Grove Farms, I craned to hear the clatter in the nearby factory, as glass bottles being filled with liquid gold, maple syrup, clinked as they traveled down the assembly line. And as I walked the well-worn stone path to the sugarhouse on site, I envisioned crossing this very same route as a girl with classmates, busily clucking all the way with noisy chatter. Even today, with nearly grown children of my own, I relish the time I spend at places that hearken back to my youth.

There has been much discussed and debated lately about Maple Grove Farms closing its factory to tours. While much has been said about a link to possible bioterrorism and that the world, indeed, is a different place since 9-11, there is a much simpler reason why the company, reluctantly, stopped its tours.

While many may view Maple Grove Farms as a major attraction, the company is also a major manufacturer that ships its many products (maple syrup/candy, marinades, salad dressings, pancake mixes and more) all over the country and world. To ensure Maple Grove not only continues but increases its business, the company recently underwent the rigorous certification required to obtain SQF 2000 status. SQF stands for Safe Quality Food, and this certification is a designation recognized all over the globe for food safety, cleanliness and quality. If Maple Grove hopes to land major contracts here and abroad with major retailers and food purveyors, a SQF designation is not only desired but required.

To ensure the upmost of food safety and quality for its countless consumers, Maple Grove closed its assembly line to the public, as the requirements needed for visitors to enter the 82-year-old factory under this certification were simply not feasible. Imagine tour visitors in near-surgical garb and you get a sense how rigorous these SQF requirements are. And, as a customer consuming these goods, wouldn’t you want such food safety and cleanliness procedures to be in place? A visitor with cold or flu symptoms could, literally, threaten an entire assembly line for hours.

Having taken the tour many times myself, I can assure you there are many existing and proposed measures being taken by Maple Grove to guarantee visitors get a sense of what they would have experienced on a factory tour. A state-of-the-art DVD being produced will actually allow visitors to view even more assembly processes than the previous traditional tour. Already, there is a narrated exhibit in the sugarhouse, describing the sugarmaking process, and an entertaining factory video in the store, voiced by Willem Lange, being played on a continuous loop. On a recent visit, there were a half-dozen visitors enjoying that very video.

The fact is that while the tours may have been popular, the number of different initiatives being undertaken should really help in softening the blow of any potential impact to the bottom line of Maple Grove and the region’s tourism economy. The potential millions of dollars in business that can be gained by Maple Grove being awarded much larger contracts has a far more reaching impact to the region’s economy than, frankly, the tours. And it ensures one of the region’s largest employers will continue to hold that rank.

We as a region should praise not punish Maple Grove for making a difficult decision that, ultimately, may strengthen the very fabric of our economy, as we want to make sure that school children for generations to come have the opportunity to walk the same stone path I did as a girl.