Where do we get maple sugar?

The graceful maple tree, with its papery leaves and clusters of key ring seeds, enjoys life in the cool and temperate parts of the world. There are more than 100 different maples, and all of them have sugary ¬sweet sap. North America is home to 1.2 different maples, some with sweeter sap than others. What’s more, the maple needs the right kind of weather to fill its trunk with juicy sap. The spring weather must seesaw between frost and thaw.

Our best syrup tree is the sugar maple or rock maple and it yields most sap in the tricky spring weather of New England. It does almost as well in the regions just north of the Canadian border. These two regions provide most of the maple syrup for the United States and Canada.