Sycamore syrup

Maple sugaring is very closely connected to early-spring day/night swings in temperature and prime time has typically been March around Upstate New York. Over at Hudson Valley One, Lissa Harris looks at how that's shifting because of climate change -- some farmers are now collecting sap in January, and the sap itself is different. Also: With sugar maples potentially at risk, farmers are exploring syrups made from other trees, including birch and sycamore. [HV1]

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For a number of years Cornell was experimentally tapping the butternut trees on my little street in Albany. I'm not sure I saw the hanging buckets last year so I'll keep my eye out this year to see if Cornell is doing it again or not.

I did learn this in terms of Cornell's research on a range of trees that produce sap: "Sugar maple remains the No. 1 source of syrup by a large margin, and its sap has the most sugar content, although butternut is a close second." However, butternut might not be viable for mass production of syrup because butternuts are in decline due to butternut canker disease. But apparently a "plantation" of new butternut trees is being planted in eastern Ontario as an alternative source for syrup.

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