Early colonizers here were shown their methods, and evolved them into the Industrial Age. Pennsylvania is blessed with an enormous population of sugar maple trees, which were first tapped for syrup and sugar by indigenous peoples who lived here hundreds of years ago. Though maple syrup can be harvested from red and black maple trees, the sugar maple has the highest concentration of sugars. The Council is made up of five member associations that stretch all across the northern and western parts of the state: Northwest Maple Syrup Producers Association, Potter-Tioga Maple Syrup Producers Association, Northeastern PA Maple Syrup Producers Association, Somerset County Maple Syrup Producers Association and Endless Mountains Maple Syrup Producers Association. Like many agricultural communities in PA, there is an organizing body around the many producers: the Pennsylvania Maple Producers Council. According to the PA Department of Agriculture, our Commonwealth produced 165,000 gallons in 2015 143,000 in 2016 and 139,000 in 2017, all from over 250 producers. In the US, which as a whole produces around 4.16 million gallons each year, Vermont is the leader and Pennsylvania’s rank slides between sixth or seventh. When it comes to production, Canada is responsible for over 80% of the world’s maple syrup production, with Quebec making up about 90% of that number. Think about that - in the grand scheme of things, Pennsylvania is one of only a few places in the world where maple syrup is made. Maple trees are indigenous to North America, and while there is a tiny bit of production in Japan and South Korea, the vast majority of maple syrup is made in Canada and the Northeastern part of the United States. But the process of making syrup is pretty simple: Anyone with access to a maple tree can drive a small tube, called a spile, into the tree to collect the sap, which is then boiled down into maple syrup.
Why the sap flows is still a bit of a mystery, involving complex science around temperature, suction and pressure. Given the right temperature conditions in later winter and early spring (below freezing at night and around 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the day), the starches convert to sugar and the sap begins to flow. In cold weather, these stately trees store starch in their trunks and roots to prepare for winter. Literally, the food that maple trees use to feed themselves and their little buds, it’s the closest thing we really have to the nectar of the gods, a liquid that teems with the life and energy of the forest.
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