Maple Heritage

6 Fascinating Facts About Pennsylvania Maple Production

While many Northern Pennsylvania Maple Producers are families who have passed maple-sugaring traditions from generation to generation, the process is actually, well… SCIENCE. Here are 6 facts about maple production in PA.

1. The sugar maple trees of Pennsylvania were first tapped for syrup and sugar by Indigenous Peoples who lived here hundreds of years ago. (Source: PAeats.com)
2. One maple tree tap (a small tube known as a “spile” driven into the tree from which sap flows) will yield an average of 10 gallons of sap per season. Depending on the sugar content of the sap, it takes 30–55 gallons of sap evaporated down to make one gallon of syrup. (Source: PAMapleFestival.com)
3. It is impossible to harm a tree by taking too much sap. When the tree begins to bud in spring, it stops sharing sap and reserves it for the new growth instead. (Source: PAeats.com)
4. Temperatures too warm or too cold during the 6- to 8-week sap season reduce the amount of sap flow and result in lower maple production.
5. Pennsylvania is ranked in the top 10 maple-producing states in the U.S., averaging 170,000 gallons of pure maple syrup produced per year. (Source: Statista).
6. The PA Route 6 Heritage Region boasts the largest producer of maple syrup in the entire state, Patterson Farms in Tioga County, with over 75,000 trees tapped. (Source: PAeats.com)

History of Maple Production

Maple sap has been harvested in the forests of Eastern North America since before Europeans landed on the continent. While the earliest records detailing the collection and “distillation,” as it was called, of maple sap by Native Americans are of the Micmac in 1606, the abundance of oral traditions concerning sap collection suggests that the practice was discovered long before then.

The discovery of sweet sap is heard in various stories. In one, a chief throws an axe, and when the air warms the following day, sap runs from the hole left behind. The sap was then used to cook venison, unveiling the sweet maple flavor. Other stories credit the discovery to notable historical figures; in one fable, it is attributed to the squirrel.

Native Americans followed a calendar based on moon phases, often naming the resulting periods after major cultural events specific to that area. Thus, the moon in March was known as the “Sugar Moon” or the “Maple Sugar Moon” in groups where maple production was prevalent.

Members of the Algonquian tribe used stone tools to make V-shaped notches in the trunk, inserting reeds or concave pieces of bark to carry the sap to buckets made of a hollowed-out log, birch bark, or clay. The sap would be concentrated by dropping hot stones into the buckets or leaving them out in cold temperatures and then skimming ice from the top. The syrup was mainly processed into sugar blocks, which can be stored indefinitely and is much easier to transport.

When Europeans began settling in North America, Native Americans traded maple sugar with them and eventually showed them how to make their own. Maple production remained relatively unchanged until the late 1700s, when it was decided that cutting the tree would do it harm, and producers began using an auger to drill a hole instead.

In later years, maple sugar was promoted as an alternative to the cane sugar produced by the labor of slaves in the West Indies and the southern US. Technologies began to advance and be patented, with wooden or metal spiles replacing reeds, and metal buckets on hooks replacing birch bark pails. Innovation continued through the 1800s with evaporation technologies and other advances.

The 1960s and 1970s saw the dawn of the modern age of maple production. Plastic tubing systems were perfected, and vacuum pumps awere dded, removing some of the arduous manual labor required in years past. Tractors were employed instead of horse-drawn carts. Steel pans beat out iron kettles for evaporating, and gas or oil burners began to move into traditional wood-fired operations.

Throughout this time, life became hard for maple producers as cane sugar continued to take an increasingly large chunk of the market. Production changed over to syrup rather than sugar, but producers were suffering due to bulk purchasing by large retailers, who paid little to farmers, often less than $.25 per pound, and reaped much of the profit from consumers.

Associations such as the Potter-Tioga Maple Producers began to pop up across maple country to protect the interests of small producers and farmers, and to establish a retail market independent of corporate middlemen. Producers pooled their money to buy supplies in bulk and negotiate better prices for them; goods were sold at farmers’ markets and small shops. Marketing efforts brought crowds of people and commerce to rural areas, where associations organized farm tours and festivals to highlight a home-grown industry with roots in traditional American culture.

Photo Credit: Asbury Woods by Rachel KJ under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 / Maple Sugaring in Clymer Township by Dincher under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons