Welcome to New Jersey, known around the world for Tony Soprano, Turnpike tolls, chemical plants, and … maple syrup? If a university in the southern part of the state has its way, the sticky sweet brown stuff you put on your pancakes might one day come from New Jersey.
It’s part of an effort to use a species of maple tree common to southern New Jersey that has only half as much sugar as the maples of Vermont, the nation’s maple syrup capital. The idea is to see if a viable syrup industry can be created in a part of the state better known for casinos and its vast forest of pine trees.
Backed by $1 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Stockton University is in its fourth year of producing syrup from the 300 acres (120 hectares) of maples surrounding it.
“You should never tell a New Jerseyan, ‘It can’t be done,’ because we live for the challenge,” said Judith Vogel, a mathematics professor and director of the Stockton Maple Project. “There were a lot of obstacles to be overcome in bringing maple syrup production to south Jersey, but the work has been fun, and the results have been very sweet.”