Why Is Maple Syrup This Hard to Get From a Tree

How is maple syrup made when forty gallons of clear, watery sap turn into just one gallon, with no sugar added? And where does the rest of the sap go? That ratio sets how much sap a producer must collect from the woods and how much water has to be driven off for every jug. This Harvest Ledger film follows maple syrup from the sap to the sugarhouse and asks why a maple tree makes syrup so hard to get. You will see why the numbers look so lopsided and what they mean for the people who run a sugarhouse. Stay to the end to find out what happens to the sap that never becomes syrup. In this video: Why forty gallons of maple sap make only one gallon of maple syrup What fresh sap looks and tastes like when it comes from the tree Why no sugar is added to pure maple syrup How the sap-to-syrup ratio decides how much sap a producer has to collect How much water has to be driven off for every single jug Where you live, what do you pay for a jug of real maple syrup, and does knowing the forty-to-one ratio change how you see the price? Tell us in the comments. Subscribe to Harvest Ledger for more films that follow one everyday food through the numbers behind it.