Learn More About Maple Syrup

Since 2007, students have been running Ithaca College’s very own maple syrup production business; turning semi-sweet sap into rich, golden, delicious maple syrup. Every step in the process is run by students, from tapping about 100 trees at our on-campus sugarbush, to bottling and finally marketing the finished product.

How Maple Syrup is Made:

Step 1: Once the weather is optimal for sap flow, students drill and hammer taps into trees. Mainly sugar maples are used, but other species of maple can be tapped as well.

Step 2: Students run plastic tubing from the tree taps into 5 gallon buckets and wait for the flowing sap to collect. Buckets are emptied daily into storage containers that hold 30-40 gallons of sap.

Step 3: Once 8-10 storage containers are full the sap is filtered and the evaporator is fired up.

Step 4: Boiling begins! The wood-fired evaporator is fueled by logs that are chopped throughout the boil. As the fire burns, the sap begins to transform from a pale, golden color to a thick, deep amber. When the boil is nearly done, the contents of the evaporator are emptied into buckets and brought back to our food-safe lab.

Step 5: The boil is continued indoors using big metal pots, hotplates, thermometers, and refractometers – all to ensure perfect-tasting syrup. When the syrup reaches the right sugar content (determined by our refractometer), the boiling is complete and the bottling can begin.

Step 6: Each bottle is filled, capped, tagged, and labeled. Once students set a fair price for the syrup, bottles start selling off the shelf!