Pancakes, Syrup

Maple syrup is a sweetener made from the sap of maple trees. It is most often eaten with pancakes or waffles, but can also be used as an ingredient in baking or in preparing desserts. more...

Production

Real maple syrup comes from eastern Canada, particularly Quebec, and the northern United States, especially New England, New York State and the Great Lake states. It is made as far south as Virginia and as far west as Indiana and Minnesota. Sixteen states and 4 provinces of Canada produce maple syrup. However, it can be made wherever maples grow. Most maple trees, even boxelders, can be used as a source of sap, but the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and black maple (A. nigrum) are the most favored. A maple syrup production farm is called a sugarbush or the sugarwoods. Sap is boiled in a "sugar shanty", "sugar shack", "sugarhouse" or "cabane à sucre", a building which is louvered at the top to vent the steam from the boiling maple sap. These buildings are sometimes called a "sugar camp" a holdover from Colonial days when farmers actually went to the woods and "camped" there while making maple syrup.

Canada produced more than three-quarters of the world's maple syrup with 10,300 maple syrup producers using more than 33,680,000 taps. The province of Quebec in Canada is by far the world's largest producer of maple syrup, producing 15,600,000 litres in 2001 - about four times as much as all U.S. production combined. The provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick produce much smaller amounts, about 1,040,000 litres and 670,000 litres respectively in 2002. Nova Scotia also produces a small amount of syrup. Eighty percent of Canada's maple syrup exports in 2002 went to the U.S.

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