Tuesday, November 18, 2008

It's Gotta Be Maple Syrup

I love maple syrup. How much? Sometimes when I'm dining out for breakfast or brunch, I won't even order pancakes or waffles if the eatery doesn't serve them with real maple syrup. I have found that the cane sugar syrups (Log Cabin, Aunt Jemima, etc.) have a one-dimensional, bland taste.

Last week, a graphic from USA Today listed the top 5 states for maple syrup production. Below is the total production in gallons, and the figure in parentheses is the percentage of growth in production:

Vermont . . . . . . . 500,000 (11%)

New York . . . . . . 322,000 (44%)

Maine . . . . . . . . . . 215,000 (-4%)

Wisconsin . . . . . . 130,000 (73%)

Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . 118,000 (57%)

I was under the impression that maple syrup wasn't such a profitable business, but the fact that most of these states saw solid jumps in production suggests that there must be some money in it.

Nearly everything you could want to know about maple syrup can be found on this web page, courtesy of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers' Association.

1 comment:

CJ said...

I love your comments about maple syrup and appreciate your listing our Vermont maple website, www.vermontmaple.org. We have great recipes on the site, pictures and information about how syrup is made. Thanks for helping to talk about pure maple syrup over the cane table syrup (yuch)