Vermont Scientists Pioneer New Maple Syrup Technique

Tim Perkins and Abby van den Berg of the University of Vermont’s Proctor Maple Research Center have discovered a new technique for extracting sap from maple trees that would produce 10 times more sap per acre than the current method. Unlike the current technique, which utilizes wild maples, theirs uses young, cultivated saplings.

The industry has undergone a number of modifications since the era of spigots and buckets. Today, most farmers harvest sap from maples using a network of tubing that winds through the natural forests from tree to tree. Vacuums are placed at the end of tubes to draw out the sap more efficiently.

Perkins and van den Berg’s breakthrough occured while they were studying the movement of sap through the maples, intending to augment their yield. By chopping off the tops of saplings and placing a vacuum directly over the stem, water is sucked from the soil straight through the plant.

The younger trees are able to regenerate their branches before the next harvesting season. This method allows growers to plant the maples in a “plantation,” rather than relying on wild trees.

Reactions to the proposed technique have been mixed. The plantation method will increase predictability during the harvesting process and allow farmers to expand their businesses without investing in increasingly expensive woodland. The technique also mitigates the effects of natural disasters, decreasing the recovery period by decades.

However, many farmers fear of losing touch with the tradition that the industry is steeped in.

“[The new process] is the antithesis of what people expect from the maple syrup industry,” David Marvin, owner of Butternut Mountain Farm in Morrisville, Vermont, said.

Marvin is proud of his undomesticated maple production.

“Informed consumers like a wild crafted product,” he said, emphasizing the sustainability of natural resources involved in the current process. “I’m not faulting the researchers. They’re just doing what researchers do, but it needs to be put in a human context.”

Saplings are resistant to pests, particularly the Asian longhorned beetle, which threatens a number of hardwood trees in North America. Most crucially, saplings freeze and thaw with smaller temperature fluctuations than mature trees, a necessary component of sap development, making them a bastion against climate change for the industry

The new method vastly opens up the maple industry, as anyone with several acres of arable land could now start producing sap. Laura Sorkin, co-owner of Thunder Basin Maple Works, wrote in a recent article, “Any region with the right climate for growing maples would be able to start up maple ‘farms.’”

Other farmers worry that the industry will shift away from areas with natural maple treasuries, such as Vermont, to regions that lack forests but are abundant in labor.

The maple industry is a weighty component of Vermont’s economy. In 2013, Vermont churned out 1.32 million gallons of syrup, accounting for 40 percent of the nation’s annual production, and commercial manufacturers operate in every county in the state.

Perkins has made it clear that the new technology is not yet on the market and, at this point, would not be economically advantageous.

“There are so many small trees and sap collection devices needed, “ Perkins said in a recent interview with CBC news “that the price right now is roughly about the same for the plantation method as the traditional method.” Though it might take several decades, he insists the method will get cheaper with time.

Still, Perkins does not predict farmers will completely abandon the traditional process.

“This new technique isn’t meant to replace the traditional maple production methods,” he said. “It’s made as an additional tool that maple producers can use in certain circumstances if needs dictate.”