Betsy with granddaughters Sierra (left) and Liz. Bottled

“This is one of those stops you make where you don’t have to move 100 miles per hour. You’re on vacation. You should enjoy yourself,” says Liz Luce, who, with her sister Sierra, has been answering visitors’ questions about the goats—Nibbles, Kibbles, and Peanut Butter. Liz and Sierra are in the fourth generation of their family operating Sugarbush Farm.

At the end of a dirt road—all three routes there eventually go to dirt— Sugarbush Farm is a destination. With its farm store, trails, resident goats and horses, educational experiences and materials, and low-key picnic and play spaces, even a sublime woods chapel for quiet contemplation, it’s a place to experience the Vermont working landscape. The exploring, sampling, goat patting, and other activities are free—the only cost is what visitors choose to buy in the farm store.

“We have lots of long conversations with people and not just about cheese,” says Betsy Luce, who was a toddler when her parents, Jack and Marion Ayres, bought this 500-plus acre farm and aged farmhouse without indoor plumbing in 1945. Betsy has worked here all her life, so far, only recently cutting back a bit as her granddaughters Liz and Sierra take on more responsibilities.

Sugarbush Farm’s acclaimed cheese business launched shortly after the Ayres’ move to Woodstock. Jack, who had Vermont roots but lived in New York in his early years, yearned to get back to the land. He aimed to be a dairy farmer, but soon redirected to cheese. Tourism was expanding in post-World War II Vermont. Roadside gift shops sold a variety of Vermont products to travelling tourists. Vermont cheese was popular, but not very portable. As Betsy explains, cheese was sold at that time in big round wheels, with pieces chopped off into wedges.

When Betsy married dairy farmer Larry Luce, cows came back to the farm—a herd of Jerseys. Besides establishing the farm’s dairy herd, Larry reignited Sugarbush Farm maple production, first in the old sugarhouse on the farm, then building a new one in the 1980s. Betsy and Larry’s sons Jeff and Ralph, the third generation of the family, now head the maple production. The Luces combine traditional ways and state-of-the-art equipment. Much of their land is forested, providing abundant firewood. With this ready fuel, the evaporator that boils the sap is wood fired. Their evaporator itself is a spiffy, efficient, stainless-steel model. Their reverse-osmosis system removes water from the sap, reducing the time and fuel in boiling.

From late February into April, visitors can see the maple process in person. The rest of the year, the sugarhouse is also open, but for self-guided tours. A video and lots of displays illuminate the sugar-making process and labor.