Skip to Content

.com
  • Sign in
  • Home
  • Shop
  • Recipes
  • Blog
  • Heritage
  • Contact Us
  • 0
.com
  • 0
    • Home
    • Shop
    • Recipes
    • Blog
    • Heritage
    • Contact Us

  • Sign in

Maple syrup is inherently organic

  • All Blogs
  • FAQ
  • Maple syrup is inherently organic
  • January 14, 2026 by
    Maple syrup is inherently organic
    James Jennings
    Maple syrup is one of the most organic certified agricultural products. The maple federation of Quebec keeps meticulous records, and they indicate 23% of maple producers are certified organic and 36% of the maple syrup in the Quebec Strategic Maple reserve is certified organic. Compare that to 4.2% of Canadian agriculture overall. What about maple syrup facilitates such broad acceptance of organic certification? There are two reasons. 

    Maple syrup is inherently organic, so certification is easy to get. It requires few if any changes to most sugaring operations. It is recommended that maple trees be 25cm/10" in diameter before they are tapped for sap. It takes 40 years for a maple tree to grow to that size. With rare exception, a sugarbush (i.e., a forest of maple trees used for maple syrup production) is a wild forest. It was not planted, it grew. Someone planting maple trees in rows would have to have a 40+ year vision minimum. 

    The maple trees we tap for sap are 40 to 350 years old. It is the forest. Our responsibility is stewardship of the forest. Sugarmakers do not use fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides except in the rarest of conditions, which are most often caused by invasive species. Asian longhorned beetle,  forest tent caterpillar, maple trumpet skeletonizer, and maple leaf cutter. 


    Unlike strawberries, spinach, kale or apples
    where organic protects the soil, groundwater, and produce, sugaring doesn’t use fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides except in the rarest of cases.

    Additionally, organic maple syrup does not taste as good as non-organic maple syrup. Full disclosure - there can be bad tasting conventional maple syrup, so it isn’t the case that conventional is always better. However, certified organic defoamers are not as effective so they need to be used in higher quantities. They degrade the flavor and can change the mouth feel, making them feel oily. Organic does not protect the forest and does not improve the flavor of the syrup. I can still source it for you in any quantity, but it moves away from differentiating on flavor.


    in FAQ
    Copyright © VermontMaple.com LLC    
    Powered by Odoo - The #1 Open Source eCommerce

    We use cookies to provide you a better user experience on this website. Cookie Policy

    Only essentials I agree