We're in the thick of the maple syrup harvest season right now, but high fuel costs will likely lead to price increases of around 30 percent, according to an article in the Boston Globe. Fuel prices - sugarmakers use fuel oil to boil the harvested sap into syrup - combined with already low syrup reserves from several poor harvest seasons are driving up retail prices. Warmer winters due to climate change have shortened the season, causing historically low output. Plus, there's an increased demand for maple syrup as consumers grow increasingly hip to its superiority over the faux corn syrup-based pancake syrups.
So get your whole grain pancakes with wild blueberry-maple syrup while the gettin's good.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-19-2008 @ 11:23AM
Katy said...
my best maple-syrup discovery has been the different grades of syrup, suitable for different purposes. i can only find one type at the supermarket, but (not surprisingly) almost every variation is available at the farmer's market!
katy
http://www.sugarlaws.com
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3-19-2008 @ 11:35AM
Julie said...
I love good maple syrup especially on a good buttery stack of pancakes. But why stop at pancakes, use it for glazes, beverages and baking. How about a delicious maple pie, here's the recipe:
http://noshtalgia.blogspot.com/2007/10/me-getting-all-sappy.html
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3-19-2008 @ 1:02PM
wade said...
I know a farmer in Quebec and get it for $5 per 1/4 liter. It's also great with salmon.
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3-21-2008 @ 10:03AM
Dan Leithauser said...
There is something that was left out of the Boston Globe article.
Energy used to evaporate the water from the sap to make syrup can be reduced through the use of reverse osmosis. The more water that is present in the sap, the more energy is required to evaporate that water. Running the sap through some specialized reverse osmosis membranes helps remove some of the water from the sap, concentrating the sugars in the resulting product which then undergoes the same heating process. Less water after reverse osmosis "pretreatment" means less energy is used to make the end product syrup!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_osmosis
http://beta.mapleprimes.com/blog/nina/reverse_osmosis_and_maple_syrup_that_is
and a video!
http://1sttube.videosift.com/video/How-Its-Made-Maple-Syrup
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