GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- If researchers at Stockton University have their way, New Jersey will become a producer of maple syrup.
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 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."
The key to the project is utilizing some underdog trees that are not in the same class as the sugar maples typical of Vermont. Although there are some sugar maples in the northern part of New Jersey, Stockton is located in southern New Jersey, about 16 miles northwest of Atlantic City, where red maples are more common.
Although maple syrup has been made in New Jersey since the state was populated mainly by Native Americans, who shared their knowledge with settlers, no large-scale industry took hold, particularly in the state's south.
Red maples like those in Stockton "are not highly sought-after because the sugar content is significantly lower, about 1% coming from a red maple versus about 2% for a sugar maple," said Ryan Hegarty, assistant director of the Maple Project.
In 2022, New Jersey produced 1,817 gallons of syrup, worth $88,000, according to the state agriculture department. By contrast, Vermont produces half of the nearly 6 million gallons of maple syrup sold each year in the United States, worth about $105 million, according to the federal agriculture department.
Allison Hope, executive director of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association, said those federal figures are believed to be an undercount, with the real total somewhat higher.
Another challenge is the climate in southern New Jersey, which tends to be warmer than that of New England. That affects when and how the sap flows.
"You need below-freezing nights, then you need above-freezing daytime temperatures" to ensure a good flow of sap, Hegarty said.
At Stockton, that usually begins around the second week of January, when participants use cordless drills to bore tiny holes into the trees and place metal taps into which the sap flows. A vacuum-powered hose system helps the sap along and carries the liquid to collection buckets at twice the rate of just letting it drip out without assistance.
So far this year Stockton has collected over 4,000 gallons of sap from 400 trees, and expects to produce 55 gallons of syrup, "which would be a great year for us down here in south Jersey," Hegarty said.