Feb 25, 2024 By Rick Shrum 5 min read

Bob and Debby Panichi, outside the Sugar House on their Donegal Township farm, in a file photo from 2022

Depending on weather, Bob Panichi and his wife, Debby, collect 30,000 to 60,000 gallons of sap that ultimately boil down to 500 to 900 gallons of maple syrup. (2022 file photo)

Bob Panichi is back on his feet, and so is Rustic Rock Maple Farm.

Panichi owns the Donegal Township farm, a 108-acre expanse northwest of Claysville with innumerable hills and maple trees. This is where he and his wife, Debby, launched their maple syrup operation in 2019, an endeavor that has been equal parts hobby and business.

Then about a year ago, the hobby and business took a hiatus – a painful hiatus, especially for Bob.

While navigating the woods early in the season, flushing tree lines, he twisted an ankle and ended up with multiple leg injuries – including compound fractures of the tibia and fibula and a shattered ankle bottom.

Recovery limited his ability to work and forced Bob and Debby, farmers market staples, to miss the majority of the May to October sales season. He eventually healed, and the couple did return for some late-year festivals.

Now he is back canvassing those hills, tapping trees, painstakingly producing syrup, eagerly anticipating farmers markets and marketing their syrup, maple sugar and other products with store and coffee shop owners.

“It was quite the ordeal operationally, but I’m back out. My leg feels good,” said Bob Panichi, a tall, angular man in his mid-60s.

He and Debby, his Bethel Park High School sweetheart, have lived on the farm since the early 1980s. They used to raise sheep and goats there while maintaining full-time professional jobs. They now devote 45 acres to their hobby/business.

Rustic Rock is a single-source, small-batch maple syrup business that is certified organic, 100% natural and unrefined. The organic label means no chemicals are used in or near his woodlot or during processing.

The couple gets help, but essentially, this is a two-person operation – a Panichi operation.

“Debby goes into the woods with me when I’m checking taps,” he said. “She does all of the evaporating and all of the bottling. Debby almost always runs the evaporator by herself. She is really good.”

The Panichis are about halfway through the maple syrup production season. Typically, Bob and a forester kick off the process in late January by placing taps in trees, generally a four-day process.

Bob said he wanted to ramp up the operation this year and hired “a few foresters with maple backgrounds. They’re young and they march through the woods rapidly. We started Jan. 20 and we were done tapping in two or three days.”

The work is time consuming. “For one-and-a-half or two months, it’s 24/7 when we’re in season,” Bob said. “You don’t sleep, especially when you’re in a freeze-thaw cycle and the trees are running.”

There also is a formidable amount of waste. Bob said that depending on weather, they collect 30,000 to 60,000 gallons of sap and end up with 500 to 900 gallons of maple syrup.

Embarking on this process in January is a key, however. Mid-winter temperatures can fluctuate, dropping below and rising above freezing on the same day. That enhances the flow of sap, which eventually is converted into syrup.

“For each freeze-and-thaw cycle in a season, we make about one barrel per run,” Bob said. “And it’s always interesting to see what Mother Nature gives you that day with the flavor of syrup. It can have a unique quality like a buttery base.” Or other flavors on other days.

Consumers notice. Bob Panichi said a number of them have asked why Rustic Rock syrup tastes different from store brands. He says: “When you buy my product, you buy maple syrup from one run in a freeze-thaw cycle. Syrup from a store comes from one particular market.”

The couple sells their items at various locations, including Trax Farms, Simmons Farm, and Bedner’s Farm Market (Upper St. Clair). During the warm-weather months, they also set up shop at the popular Main Street Farmers Market in Washington and the Original Farmers Market in Cecil Township.

The Panichis are proud of their enterprise. They conduct free, 2½-hour tours of their operation, including the pump house, sugar house, filtering and bottling. Guests can walk through the woods and taste the varieties of syrup that are made, including cinnamon and vanilla. To schedule a tour, email rusticrockmaple@gmail.com.

Bob and Debby don’t expect to become wealthy from this post-retirement pursuit, but they are having a sweet time.

“You can make a profit margin in maple, but you just can’t make a living profit margin,” Bob said. “We’re running only a couple of thousand taps. This keeps me on the farm, keeps me active.

“We got off to a good start this year. We had a lot of water to work with. So far, it’s working out to be an average year – not super robust, but not a bust.”