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The Northeast Maple Economy: Crop Distribution and Outlook

As the US domestic maple syrup crop continues to grow the influence of different scales and types of business can shape local communities and national trends. Survey results presented here demonstrate the dramatic difference in the scale of maple enterprises as represented by tap count and the resulting working forest acres these businesses utilize.

The Old Maple Diabetic Meter Isn’t Working so Well Anymore

In 2005 testing was started at the Cornell Food Venture Center to see if common diabetic meters could be used to measure invert sugar levels in maple syrup for making a variety of maple value added products where crystalizing the syrup is critical.

The Season is Over: Now, How Will You Sell Your Syrup?

No two sugarmakers follow the exact same path. For some, their business grows slowly, one weekend farmers market at a time, and they prefer to stay small. Others build their backyard operations into wholesale businesses that keep them busy year-round. Some enjoy selling directly to their customers. And others would rather focus on production, and let established retailers take care of the rest. These snapshots of four sugaring enterprises illustrate just a few of those successful models.

The Shifting Sweet Spot of Maple Syrup Production: Climate Change Impacts on Sugar Maple Sap

How may climate change impact the maple syrup industry? Our team of interdisciplinary researchers, ACERnet (Acer Climate and Socio-Ecological Research Network), has been working to understand the complex answers to this question for the past several years. In particular, we are interested in examining how climate impacts the timing of the maple tapping season as well as both the quality and quantity of sap collected during the tapping season.

The Timing of Tapping for Maple Syrup Collection

There are a variety of reasons why sugarmakers might want to tap earlier than the traditional date: thousands of taps that take several weeks to install, lower snow cover and easier walking before mid to late winter, climate change generally moving the season forward and providing more sap flow weather in January and February. For most sugarmakers, the bottom line is simply this: what tapping time frame results in the highest sap yield? The experiments described below, which were performed between 2000 and 2007, were designed to answer this question.

The Work of Maple Associations

A panel discussion at the NAMSC annual meeting offered a number of suggestions for ways state and provincial associations can help their members.

Thoughts on the Season: Bruce Bascom

Overall, Bruce says he is positive and optimistic about both production and demand, estimating that both could double in the U.S. in the next decade or so. “Some people think it’s a bubble,” he says, “but I think the market is still very strong.”

Tree Size Matters

In order to develop models of tree size and yield we measured the sap volume and sugar content from a wide range of tree sizes during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. This article explores the findings.