Local Family Launches Maple Syrup Business
Local Family Launches Maple Syrup Business
The Moss Family Opens Ellicottville Syrup Co.
It’s kind of interesting how one thing leads to another. Asa Moss and his partner, Franklinville native, Greg Vassar and their four children live on the fifty-plus-acre Moss Farms LLC on Tough Hill Road (towards Rainbow Lake from Ellicottville center), which has been in the Moss family for three generations. The family has been part of community life for many years.
Jonathan Moss, Sr. was well known in the community - selling insurance for family-owned Moss and Sullivan Insurance and tending bar for years at Madigan’s. Asa is also well known for his musical talents on the bagpipes. He recently played for members of the American Legion in town, as well as at the St. Patrick’s Day festivities at Madigan’s and Finnerty’s. Asa normally wears his plaid kilt, derk, and the traditional sporran to carry his wallet and necessities, but this year the winds were too high, so he did not. It seems a true Scotsman doesn’t wear his kilt when the wind may rustle around underneath it and expose more than the gentleman’s musical talents!
Moss construction (FB: Moss Construction LLC), owned by Asa Moss, Greg Vassar and Jonathan Moss, Jr. is also part of their business enterprises stemming from a desire to fulfill some family dreams for what started as 400 acres back in Asa’s granddad’s day. Although Scotsmen, there seems to be a wee bit of do-it-yourself Amish mixed in, possibly through local association. They will build for you, they will cut the trees to cut the lumber for your project if needed, they will create the metal braces if you look for a post and beam building, dig a trench, put in a new foundation or a pond, etc., and top it all off with a bottle of homemade maple syrup.
Since Greg and Asa are students of family lore, many of these projects pay homage to ancestors who came before. It seems Asa’s family goes back to England when folks were leaving for a better life in America. The irony of it is that his ancestors might have not been here except for a child who needed medical care on the day they were to leave, forcing them to wait another day to board. The ship they were scheduled on originally did not make it. One of these ancestors went on to marry and eventually start the first lumber mill in East Aurora. Some of the sawdust DNA seeds must have been passed on to Asa who always wanted to have a lumber mill on the Moss land in Ellicottville, which is now a reality.
Moss Farms LLC owns the land on which the maples grow from which the delicious, sweet sap flows. The maple syrup production is a culmination of another dream, and “one that takes over your life like a sweet disease,” said Greg as he laughed rather ruefully. The production company rents the trees from Moss Farms through which they run their sap collection lines. The operation is still relatively small with 300 taps; the plan is to get to 3,000 within the next few years. At this point they will be placing their syrup in local shops. Watch for it!
Since the domain name, Ellicottville Syrup Co. is still pending, they can be reached presently though the Moss Construction Facebook page. Call 716-225-7784 if you want to know more about any of the operations they have going up on their hill.