Montpelier backyard maple evaporator company expands

From garage tinkering to an old granite shed, The Vermont Evaporator Company is a homegrown success story.

Kate and Justin McCabe wanted a backyard system to boil maple sap into syrup. When they couldn't find anything suitable, they made one. Then they made a dozen more and sold them all. The McCabes held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday at their new manufacturing facility in Montpelier. The couple says the business has now pumped $300,000 into the economy, and is growing.

"A lot of that has stayed in Vermont, and all but a couple thousand of those dollars have stayed in this country. We've made $50,000 of capital improvements to this building, which used to be a granite shed. We have paid about $5,000 of state and local taxes," Kate McCabe said.

The new facility accommodates all of the manufacturing processes needed to create their portable evaporators.