It started with a boy of nine and a sugar keeler.

Kyle Hillegas was nine years old when he found a sugar keeler in the basement of his grandfather's house. He asked what it was for — so his grandfather took him out and showed him. They say it got in his blood.

Every year after that, the operation got bigger. At first, boiling on the wood burner in his grandparents' basement. Then a kettle held over an open fire by a tripod. Then a small camp in the woods where they'd boil all day and all night.

In 2009, we built the sugar camp you can visit today. We put the evaporator in before we put up the walls.

Today, Hillegas Sugar Camp is owned and operated by Kyle and Rebecca Hillegas — along with their three children, Syrus, Brennen, and Anna, Kyle's dad Russ, and his brother Brandon. Of course, the whole family also includes our beloved dog, Toby, our friendly cat, Oreo, and Sappy the leaf man — a trio who are quickly becoming the camp’s mascots! Together they tend 16,500 taps on tubing and vacuum for the 2026 maple season.

Sap is trucked from four pump-houses to the sugar camp. We haul raw sap from 7,500 taps and concentrate from the remaining 9,000. Sap is concentrated on an 8-post CDL 25+ RO, then boiled on a 5×15 CDL Master evaporator that turns out around 90 gallons of syrup an hour.

When the sap stops running, we don't stop. Weekends fill with maple creemees, and during the warm weather months (April-Oct) we host a Sunday dinner right out of the sugar camp kitchen.