Maple Syrup Season Begins In Ossining, New York

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) - Vermont may be the most famous maple syrup-producing state, but in nearby Ossining, N.Y. they're busy making maple syrup too.

Silver buckets are hanging on Maple trees that have been tapped, and WCBS 880's Catherine Cioffi described the smell coming from the sugaring house in Westchester County as sweet.

WCBS 880's Catherine Cioffi learns how to make maple syrup

It's maple syrup season at the Teatown Lake Reservation.

"What we need are cold nights and warm days. That's what gets the sap starting to rise in the trees," said Phyllis Boch, Director of Education.

For a great sap producing day, said Boch, temperatures need to be below freezing at night and swing above freezing during the day.

At the Teatown Reservation, each saphole in the Maple tree will produce about 10 gallons of sap.

"Usually around here it takes us 50 to 60 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, so we have less of a sugar content than trees in Vermont," said Boch.

Boch explains the buckets of sap are boiled down until you have maple syrup.

"Basically just boiling water, not adding anything," said Boch. "It has to reach a temperature of 219.5 degrees and then we bottle."

Maple syrup season lasts about 4-6 weeks, and you can be a part of it during their "Sugaring Sunday" events. In less than an hour from Manhattan, you could watch the experts tap a tree and head to the sugar house where the syrup is created.

"This is one of the first and ongoing sustainable products that we have. So, it's very local...it can't be done in Florida or California. It's local the northeastern United States," said Boch.