NCP Blog: From Tap to Table

I have fond childhood memories of family vacations when we would have breakfast at a motel or hotel restaurant and there would always be cute little jars or bottles of maple syrup, jellies, and jams on the tables. I would always order pancakes, waffles, or French toast just so I could use all the syrup and save the cute little bottle!

 

How much do you know about maple syrup? I thought I knew a lot, but I discovered that I really didn’t! I found some good information about maple syrup on a Cornell University site. Let’s pour over some of the info.

 

 

What is maple syrup?

 

Maple syrup is a 100% natural product made from the sap of maple trees. It is a pure product and contains no additives or preservatives. In the late winter and early spring, during periods of overnight freezes and daytime thaws, maple trees develop positive pressure in their stems. During this time, sap is collected from maple trees and concentrated to a high sugar content to make a light to dark brown syrup.

 

 

Where is maple syrup made?

 

Did you know that New York is the second largest maple syrup producing U.S. state, surpassed only by Vermont? Wow, I never knew that! It’s produced in the region of North America ranging from southeastern Canada to Pennsylvania and from the East Coast to Wisconsin.

 

What’s your preference when it comes to syrup? Many people prefer artificial [pancake] syrup over pure maple syrup. Pure maple syrup is definitely pricier than the artificial kind.

 

Do you buy maple syrup on a regular basis, whether real or artificial?

 

 

A variety of uses

 

The most common use for maple syrup is to put it on breakfast foods such as pancakes, waffles, and French toast, but this syrup can be used in so many different ways.

 

Here are some ideas for different uses of the syrup from Rural Sprout.

 

 

 

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