Why is maple syrup still expensive?
http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=news&storyID=17209 This was four years ago, and the story was four years old then.
by 
Jewels Vern
ANSWERS: 4
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There are several reasons. First being that there is a very short time period of the year that the sap will flow, usually only a couple of weeks. Another reason is the weather conditions have to be perfect for good sap yield, it requires freezing cold temperatures at night with nice warm temperatures by day. As soon as this weather cycle is broken ... everything stops. In the article you read about the way they harvest sap effectively from young trees (7 yrs.). It is only viable to new growth plantations and there aren't very many, the cost of land, planting, setting up and waiting 7 years would mean the producer will be 20 or more years before recouping his investment - so he better have a damn good day job to cover the bills. The great majority of sap is still collected from much older trees, and I can assure you no intelligent producer is going to cut his sugar maples for any reason. On my own property I have some maple trees that I'm sure are at least 200 years old and and still going strong.
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Limited kind of climate, limited season and kind of weather during which sap will flow, limited number of proper sap-giving maple trees. Plus a very labor- intensive extraction or boiling-down process.
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oh no, it's a conspiracy! A conspiracy I tells ya! *blink* *blink* Dang diggety Canadians!!!! (Theyre not fooling me. I KNOW they send their birds down here to crap on Mr Pants car after he washes it. I know, because I hear you guys snickering after you shoo them to start them to flyin'!! "Shoo! Shoo! I hears, and then "tee hee hee hee!" (Oh yea, you wouldn't think we could hear you hundreds of miles away, but we do because a million Canadians snickering all at once is louder than you'd think! *blink* *blink blink, blink*
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Because it's rare where I live.
Ice man 
officegirl 
Mr PantsFellDown 
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