Mark and Susan Lockwood have made a hobby of tapping maple trees on their Seekonk property each year for the past 24 years. In a homemade evaporator, gallons of sap are boiled all day long at the end ...

Lisa Gauker held up a bottle of store-bought pancake syrup. “Is this really maple syrup?” the recreation and special events supervisor for the Berks County Department of Parks and Recreation asked.

As March fills with maple syrup festivals, we come to learn how maple trees aren't at all like factories or franchises. No. The sap they produce and its sugar content — all necessary to boil it down ...