About Paul’s Sugar House

Welcome to Paul’s Sugar House, owned and operated by Paul & Serena Zononi, where making quality maple syrup and maple products is our passion!

It is our mission is to produce the best tasting and best quality maple products possible. We want to educate our customers that pure maple syrup is a healthy, versatile, all natural sweetener.

Although our sugar house does not have set hours off season, we live close by and are just a phone call away. We enjoy visiting with our wonderful customers, meeting new people and are always happy to give tours. Stop by and visit us!

Paul’s Sugar House is certified by the Commonwealth Quality Program; a program of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources that holds participants to industry standards of safety, sustainability, quality and locally sourced ingredients.

Paul is currently a board member of the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association and has been a member since 1978.

Paul’s Sugar House is also a member of CISA (Community Involved In Sustaining Agriculture).

Our Story

Paul is a first generation sugar maker and has been making maple syrup for over 50 years. He began making maple syrup when he was 8 years old. He doesn’t remember what inspired him to tap a tree when he was a kid, but he remembers cutting a strip out of a metal can, bending and sharpening the strip into a V shape, and banging it into a tree, then hanging a second coffee can beneath it. He boiled the sap he collected over the outside fireplace behind his parents’ house in Williamsburg, Massachusetts. He has been addicted to sugaring ever since. Fifty years later, his operation, Paul’s Sugar House, has 4,400 taps on pipeline, most of them on vacuum, and boils on an energy-efficient wood-fired evaporator.

The original sugarhouse was built in 1971. The total cost of materials for the 12-by-16-foot structure was $200, thanks to lumber, windows and other materials found in family members’ barns and basements. We’re still in the same building, though Paul has added on to it seven times since then.

Serena came into the picture around 2007 when she and Paul began dating. He introduced her to real maple syrup and maple sugaring. Over the next couple of years she fell in love with both Paul and everything maple. They were married in June of 2010 and have been working together to grow their maple business ever since.

Convinced that their syrup was the best around, Serena convinced Paul to enter it in a local fair where it took 1st place! Since that first fair, all the maple products have been entered in all the local fairs where they won many, many ribbons. They have also won awards in the North American Maple Syrup Council Contest which is an international contest that has entrants from both Canada and the USA.

From November 1st to December 24th each year, “The Hilltown Christmas Place” opens next door to the sugar house. It’s a gift shop featuring over 70 local artisans and craftsmen and a full line of Paul’s Sugar House maple products; including maple cream filled chocolate cups. Yes, they are as yummy as they sound! Paul manages the Christmas trees which he cuts fresh every few days and the wreaths which are made fresh right at the sugarhouse. Serena manages the gift shop. It all started seven years ago to sell more syrup and has grown and become an annual destination for many folks.