old state farms

How long will maple syrup keep? An unopened bottle of maple syrup can be stored un refrigerated for up to 18 months. Once it is opened is must be refrigerated and will keep an additional 18 months.

How long does the maple syrup season last? The season usually begins in late February and last to the first week of April. The season can be shorter due to poor weather conditions.

The maple syrup comes right out of the tree, right? Wrong, what comes out of the trees is called maple sap. The sugar content of maple sap is between 1.5% and 3%, it looks and tastes more water, with a hint of sweetness. The sugar content of pure maple syrup is 66.7. It takes between 40-50 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of pure maple syrup.

How many trees to do you tap? We tap approximately 2000 trees, some of those trees have two taps so our total tap count is 3200.

Do you reuse the same tap hole every year? No. Each year a new 5/16 hole must be drilled in the tree. Tapping our 2000 trees takes about 4-5 days depending on the amount of snow in the woods.

Does tapping maple trees cause harm to the tree? No. We tap only healthy maple trees and these trees can be tapped for decades with no harm. The trees normally heal the wound made by the small tap hole in 1-2 years.

Do you use formaldehyde tablets? No. Formaldehyde was used in very large maple sugaring operations to prevent micro-organism growth in the tap hole. Due to the amount of taps need to be drilled they had to begin tapping several weeks before the start of the season. Micro-organism growth would cause a reduction in the amount of sap the hole can produce. Because we can wait until the start of the season to tap our trees we have no need to use such chemicals.

Do you spray or use fertilizers on the maple trees? We do not use any chemicals or sprays on our maple trees. First, we would not want to and secondly, our maple trees grow on aprox 30 acres of forest land mixed with a variety of different species of trees and doing so would be impractical.

Is your syrup organic? Our syrup is organically produced but we are not certified by any agency.