With the help of federal grants, Stockton University is testing the potential for a maple syrup industry in South Jersey. The emerging crop in the Pine Barrens started when Stockton won nearly $1 million in two grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Together, Vermont, New York and Maine make 80% of the nation’s maple syrup crop, more than half of which comes from Vermont. South Jersey will never be Vermont when it comes to maple syrup production, said Judy Vogel, lead principal investigator at the Maple Grant Project. “But it doesn’t have to, to be successful,” she said.
“Instead of competing with Vermont, it’s more about competing with ourselves — whether we could start supplying maple syrup, and start getting New Jerseyans excited about real maple syrup, instead of corn syrup that you would buy in the supermarket,” Vogel said.
