South Jersey may be the next great place for maple syrup

As a girl growing up in New Jersey, Judith Vogel learned early that there never was a waffle that couldn’t be improved by a scoop of ice cream and a glorious drizzle of pure maple syrup.

Now a professor with Stockton University, Vogel is on a mission for Jersey kids of all ages to know that same real maple joy — thanks to none other than their own Garden State trees.

Welcome to the Stockton Maple Project, a plucky effort to prove that along with the state’s legendary tomatoes, world-class sweet corn, and up-and-coming oysters, maple syrup can indeed become the latest — although unlikely — example of South Jersey’s bounty.

“We’re going to really be looking at the idea of marketing maple syrup to the South Jersey consumer,” said Vogel, a math professor, who has partnered with like-minded professors in other disciplines. “It’s not a part of our culture.”

The Stockton Maple Project has been working toward changing that. Begun about five years ago, the project has received three U.S. Department of Agriculture grants totaling close to $1.5 million. Its earlier efforts were focused on production, research, and education. To be sure, real maple syrup is more thought of as the nectar of the northlands — Canada, the world’s largest producer, Vermont, and other New England states. Can the good stuff come from trees growing in the sandy soil of South Jersey? The Stockton folks say, you bet!

Still, South Jersey isn’t at first blush prime maple syrup country for a number of reasons. Unlike the large number of sugar maple trees in those northern states like Vermont, the nation’s largest maple syrup producer, South Jersey, including Stockton’s 1,600-acre main campus, primarily has red maples which have a lower sugar content. (The exception is a small satellite of the project at Batsto Village, a historic site in Wharton State Forest, which taps the sap of its resident sugar maples.)

By working in small batches and producing a more concentrated syrup, Vogel said they can create a product that has an even slightly higher sugar content than the Vermont standard. The project’s production is quite small compared to other states, but it has continued to grow. This year, they tapped 600 trees, up from 400. Last year, they made about 60 gallons of syrup. This year, she said it could reach 80 or more.

Some of that growth has been helped along by a growing partnership with a Vermont maple producer, Sunnymede Farms. Rather than view the fledgling South Jersey maple syrup maker as competition, Stockton’s Vermont partner sees this as a mutually beneficial opportunity to spread the love of maple to new consumers.

Promoting any domestically produced maple syrup is one of the goals of Stockton maple’s most recent federal grant. The South Jersey project can only produce so much syrup. If folks in our area get to prefer real maple over the fake stuff, Vermont producers will have an expanded market.

But that’s not the way Stockton’s first Vermont partner first got involved.

Actually, it all started with a Jersey girl.

Even before Brent Lehouiller became the maple operations manager for Sunnymede Farms in central Vermont, he was working as a manager for company that makes maple sap collection systems when his wife Cynthia texted him a feature that had just aired on one of their local television stations that — jokingly — asked the question: Should Vermont be worried?

It was about a college down in New Jersey, Stockton University, making maple syrup.

“I’m looking up where Stockton University is, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is the last place I would think maple is happening.’” said Lehouiller, who had been working in maple for decades. South Jersey, with its sandy, more acidic soil, its flat landscape and overall warmer climate, was quite different from any other maple-producing area he’d ever worked with.

But his wife Cynthia, a Jersey native loyal to her roots, included a message with that video she sent him: “You have to help them.”

So Lehouiller got in touch with Vogel, and that set the wheels in motion.

Like many natural products, Jersey maple syrup has its own special taste, Lehouiller said. He reckoned that has to do with the differences in where it comes from compared to other maple syrup-producing areas — the South Jersey climate, the sandy, more acidic soil, the use of red maple sap.

“Everything together creates kind of a unique flavor profile,” he said.

Although the syrup tastes different depending the time of year the sap is tapped, Lehouiller likened the Stockton syrup he has tasted more to Vermont’s dark robust syrup, as opposed to the golden sweet or amber maple syrups his state also produces. But, he said, the Jersey syrup has its own taste, and it’s good.

Over in South Jersey, some food and beverage producers are already dabbling in the Stockton maple as an ingredient in their creations.

The first was Scott Bencze, campus executive chef for Chartwells, Stockton’s food service provider. He’s used the syrup to make cookies and as an ingredient in salad dressing. Recently, he substituted the maple syrup for brown sugar in a marinade for pulled brisket in a Korean fusion taco he entered in an area cooking competition. He won first place.

At the event, Bencze said his group had a table with some bottles of the syrup on display. Some local business owners wanted to buy them, including a bar owner interested in making it an ingredient in one of his drinks.

“Keep it local and advertise that,” Bencze said. “I don’t think many people assume you’re producing maple syrup right out of southern New Jersey.”

Hidden Sands Brewing Company in Egg Harbor Township is planning to use the syrup in one of its porters and is looking at creating a maple-and-sparking-water beverage as well, according to managing member Matt Helm.

At Hammerbacher Kitchen, an Egg Harbor City bakery, the Stockton syrup has been used in some attention-grabbing way, like mixed with chilies to create a pizza seasoning. But what really gets notice is when people hear where the maple syrup came from.

“They’re kind of surprised to see that they’re tapping the maples down here in Jersey and that they’re yielding a usable product,” said co-owner Paul Erbacher. “It’s a bit intriguing to people.”

Vogel is looking forward to partnering with more local businesses as her project’s increases its syrup production. Her goal is to eventually have enough Stockton’s maple syrup to have it be steady presence in places the college’s bookstore and gift and gourmet shops around our area.

Could another goal be new generations of Jersey kids — like her and her own children — growing up with the joy of breakfast waffles made excellent with a crown of ice cream and real maple syrup?

“Absolutely!”