How Maple Syrup is Made, and Why It's So Expensive

As a kid reading Laura Ingalls Wilder stories, I was fascinated to read about making maple syrup and snow candy. It seemed so neat that you could go collect tree juice from the forest and make candy from it! But that was more than 100 years ago, and she saw it from a child's point of view. Making proper grade A maple syrup takes a lot of work and expertise, but more importantly, it takes time. Forty years to grow a sugar maple tree, although you can skip that if you're lucky. Weeks of slowly gathering sap, which must be done at just the right time, and you'd better get a year's worth when you do it. Many hours of filtering and greatly reducing each gallon of sap. It's no wonder then, that grade A maple syrup can cost $200 a gallon, and that tiny bottle at the grocery will cost you $15. In this video, Jeffrey Schad and Ashley Ruprecht of Laurel & Ash Farm in New York take us through the process of producing maple syrup, from the trees to the table.