Sunday, July 23, 2023

Why Maple Syrup Is So Expensive



As a kid reading Laura Ingalls Wilder stories, I was fascinated to read about making maple syrup and snow candy. It seemed so neat that you could go collect tree juice from the forest and make candy from it! But that was 150 years ago, and she saw it from a child's view. Making proper grade A maple syrup takes a lot of work and expertise, but more importantly, it takes time. Forty years to grow a sugar maple tree, although you can skip that if you're lucky. Weeks of gathering sap, which must be done at just the right time, and you'd better get a year's worth when you do it. Many hours of filtering and reducing each gallon of sap. It's no wonder then, that grade A maple syrup can cost $200 a gallon, and that tiny bottle at the grocery will cost you $15. In this video, Jeffrey Schad and Ashley Ruprecht of Laurel & Ash Farm in New York take us through the process of producing maple syrup, from the trees to the table. 

2 comments:

  1. We used to tap and make enough maple syrup for our own use. Did it the old way with spiles and buckets and boiling it down in an outside cauldron. Have to say I prefer the darker "lower' grade syrup.

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  2. And now you know why Canada has a strategic reserve of maple syrup, officially known as the International Strategic Reserve (ISR)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_Heist

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