Can you make pure maple syrup in Kentucky? The answer is a resounding “Yes, you can!” In fact, there are a growing number of Kentucky woodland owners who are doing just that, and they recently wrapped up another season of maple tapping, boiling, and bottling.

Weather events such as tornadoes and ice storms are major weather events that can have significant impacts on Kentucky woodlands and their owners. Following storms it is important to take extreme caution when entering any wooded areas with storm-related hazards such as downed power lines and trees, storm debris, and widow-makers (loose branches and hung-up stems high in the canopy).

Maple syrup producers judge the quality of a sugarbush tree based on two characteristics: total volume and sugar content of the sap yielded by the tree during the tapping season. Larger sap volumes and sugar contents are directly correlated with higher syrup production. In 1946, C.H. Jones, a researcher at the University of Vermont, developed an equation for estimating the volume of sap required to produce one gallon of maple syrup. Known as “Jones Rule,” this equation has been revised over the years to accommodate changing maple syrup standards and is presented below in its current formulation.