Maple Grove Farm is a small family-owned farm that specializes in maple syrup.
Some may assume that seems like a line of work that leads to a giant mess of syrup that would be impossible to clean up. But, it has proven to have great success in the area, with the Wiggin family having owned the farm for three generations.
The husband-and-wife duo of Lucas and Candace Wiggin currently run the nearly 100-acre farm in Afton, Tennessee.
According to an interview they conducted with WJHL this past January, they will keep the tradition alive and pass the farm to their children.
While the farm has been around for a long time, Lucas has helped to create social media pages (Facebook in October 2022 and Instagram in January 2024) for the farm to promote events on the property and its famous maple syrup.
The reason they were approached in January is the family’s unique process of making maple syrup.
At around the first week of January, when the temperature is just right, they place around 500 taps around the farm and collect sap daily. Next, the sap is piped into storage tanks, where it goes into an evaporator. The evaporator takes out the water and condenses the sugar.
One may think, “Why is there an Appalachian farm that specializes in maple syrup?”
It may seem odd, but since the Appalachian Mountains stretches into Canada and the northeastern United States – where maple syrup is mostly associated with – smaller Southern farms like Maple Grove get less spotlight.
For more information about Maple Grove Farm, visit the Facebook and Instagram pages, both named Maple Grove Farm of Afton, TN.