A Virginia Syrup With a Sweet Bark

By Chip Newcome

Out a quiet back-country road, just outside of Winchester, sits an unassuming home on a wooded lot. To the left of the house is a small building that has a commercial kitchen that was once a wood-shop. This small commercial kitchen is where one  of the few hickory syrup producers in the area processes their product.

This is where the magic happens. And the magicians are Dan and Robin Timmons.

Falling Bark Farm is a small, artisan producer of hickory syrup. It comes from the bark of the Shagbark Hickory that is hand selected only after the tree has shed it.

The bark grows “in long sheets, and as the tree ages, and the older it gets, the longer the strips are,” said Robin Timmons. They do not cut trees specifically for the bark. It is a sustainable process in which they use bark that has already fallen or collect the bark from a tree that has already fallen.

“This process came from the Native Americans who used hickory because it was high in magnesium,” Robin added. “They used it for medicinal purposes. They would shave off a thin layer (of hickory bark) and put it on cuts to help heal the cuts. So it was an herbal medicine.”

Dan Timmons has become versed in the art and history of collecting hickory bark as he and Robin have learned to make the smoky syrup.

They also have local individuals who help them gather the bark for the syrup.

“The Virginia Department of Agriculture is one of the first places we contacted,” Dan said, adding that the VDA helped point them in the right direction in terms of gathering and harvesting the bark.

The bark is then aged, dried, cut, and cleaned before it’s added to water and cooked down in order to extract the flavors. It’s strained, then goes back into the pot in order to be cooked down some more.

“There is a standard process,” Robin said. “You take bark, add water, and cook it until you have an extract. You then remove the bark and filter it at some point. You add sugar, and then you go ahead and bottle it.”

They also have learned some trade secrets that make their hickory syrup stand above the rest.

Often when someone thinks of syrup, they automatically focus on maple syrup.

“We have the theory that, when we are at shows, we let everyone taste test our syrups,” Robin said. “And usually everyone is very surprised. We have a lot of people who are maple syrup lovers who try our syrup. And they really enjoy the flavor of the hickory syrup.”

Falling Bark Farm has many flavors of hickory syrup, including Barrel Aged, Sassafras, and Brandy Vanilla. You can find their products at Farm Stores across the Northern Virginia region.

Details: For more information, visit fallingbarkfarm.com.

Read the article online at: https://issuu.com/uncoveringthevalley/docs/country_zest_style_spring_2026_edition