Jon et al: Maple Syrup is produced in the northeastern quarter of North America, specifically central & southern Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, New England, New York, and some of the other northeastern states. The sugar maple is acer saccharum, also known as hard maple. It grows well on the thin Canadian Shield soils which predominate here in Lanark County, the designated "Maple Syrup Capital Of Ontario". It takes about 40 gallons of sap to boil down to one gallon of syrup, it's not a terribly complicated process but the logistics are tricky the more you're trying to make, cause you'll get these terrific huge runs of sap which you need to be ready to transport, store and process quickly before it spoils. (Sap turns bad in a few days if not boiled, unlike the syrup which keeps very well.) A single tap (i.e. a spile placed in a tree) will produce a gallon or two of sap per day when there's a good run on. Last year I had 60 taps, gathered all by hand, buckets & pickup truck. (I don't have a tractor). Made 8 gallons syrup, a good crop for me. Commercial producers have thousands of taps--the biggest around here has about 10,000--and all the sap is pipelined direct from the trees via a web of plastic tubing which is sealed and on a vacuum pump.

Syrup making has become a part of small farm operations because it is seasonally convenient--there's nothing else needing your attention in February and March, and it's fun to get out in the woods after you've been cooped up all winter. You can actually make syrup in the fall too, when the weather freezes at night and is warm in the daytime, but hardly anyone does.

Nuff said?

Willie-O