Research & Development

 When students aren't busy making any of our other products, you can find them hard at work researching new non-timber forest products. Check out some of the products we have been developing the last couple of years.

What’s New?

As our production season ramps up for the year, our students are preparing and brainstorming ideas for some new and unique non-timber forest products:

• Natural dyes

  • Hickory based dye

  • Fungi based dye

• Salves and Candles

  • Beeswax-based skin balm

  • Pitch Pine salve

  • Herb-scented beeswax candles

  • Petal-decorated beeswax candles

• Wood-carved products

  • Woodburning-decorated utensils

  • Ebonized/roasted wooden utensils

  • Wood-turned figurines

Previously researched products:

Pine products

We have two white pine products under development:

• Pine needle tea

  • When soaked in water needles from eastern white pine trees create a sweet tea worth sipping on.

• Pine syrup

  • After soaking pine needles in water, creating a tea, pine syrup is made by adding sugar to the tea until it reaches 67 brix.

Mushrooms

We are experimenting with two species of mushroom: oyster and shiitake. Our oyster mushrooms are grown in a specialized fungus room. We harvest and dry these mushrooms and have sold them in the past. We also are experimenting with several shiitake mushroom logs that are inoculated with spawn at our sugar bush. Stay tuned for progress surrounding our mushroom operation and follow our blog for more updates!

Recipe book

Several generations of South Hill Forest Products students have contributed to our recipe book. To see some of the recipes we've been testing with our products, check out our blog. We hope to have this book printed and ready to share with our customers within the next couple years.