Brewster Store Maple Syrup

Late winter and early spring is maple season, when commercial maple producers in Ohio and other parts of northeastern North America tap trees, collect sap, boil it down to produce maple syrup, or further process it into maple sugar, fudge, nougat, cream, or other products. If you have access to a few maple trees, whether growing in your yard or in a woodland, you can produce your own maple syrup and even enough extra to use as gifts for family or friends. It's easy, great fun, and a very educational family activity. Sap to produce maple syrup can be collected from any native species of maple, but in Ohio, sugar and black maples are the first choice when they are available. Making maple syrup from sap requires boiling off water until the desired sugar concentration is achieved. Sugar and black maple usually have considerably higher sap sugar contents than red and silver maple, resulting in less sap needed and less time and energy required to produce a given volume of syrup. Good syrup can be made from red or silver maple, but it is more likely to be cloudy. Our Maple syrup is still made the old fashioned way by wood fired stills evaporating out much of the water from the maple tree sap. Great on pancakes and waffles for breakfast, or over vanilla ice cream anytime, there is nothing like real maple syrup.