Syrup Is as Canadian as a Maple Leaf. That Could Change With the Climate.

[NickB79]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/climate/climate-change-maple-syrup.html

In fact, climate change is already making things more volatile for syrup producers. In 2012, maple production fell by 54 percent in Ontario and by 12.5 percent in Canada over all, according to data from the Canadian government, because of an unusually warm spring.

Canada produces roughly 70 percent of the world’s maple syrup. That was worth about $370 million in 2017.

[cp]

1. Similar in northern Wisconsin

[htuttle]

2. 100% pure maple syrup is already so expensive that it's a luxury item

It's like $12-16 for about 8 ounces of the real stuff here in WI (no corn syrup or laboratory products added). All of the major brands of 'pancake syrup' are mostly not maple syrup any more, or have just a percentage of real syrup.

[NickB79]

3. We had a nice grove of sugar maples on the family farm

We never really bothered to tap them, but they were immense, old trees out in the woodlot that my dad left alone. He was OK leaving 30 acres of old-growth oak, basswood, ash and maple out of our 120 acre farm to Nature, not just for firewood but also for the wildlife.

The new owner cleared the entire woods and burned everything to ash a few years ago. Now it's just one big cornfield.

[The_jackalope]

4. My folks had a 5 acre woodlot on their 50 acre farm in Ontario

Every spring we would tap about 20 trees. Two or three taps per tree, drilled in with a brace and bit. My two sisters and I would help hand-carry the collection buckets to an evaporator pan over a wood fire, and spend the day feeding the fire to boil it down. Real old-school. I don't know if I've ever tasted anything so good. To this day I can't smell wood smoke in the spring without having flashbacks...

[Ohiogal]

5. How tragic.