In a side room of a Farmington, Kentucky barn sits a roaring fire underneath a large metal pan called an evaporator - warming the room with the steam it is releasing. During the peak of winter, this device is used to boil hundreds of gallons of tree sap into sweet Kentucky maple syrup.
Calyn and Kevin Colston of Colston Farm and Kitchen in Graves County started producing the breakfast commodity in 2022, when their farm was involved primarily in raising beef cattle and growing hay. Now, maple syrup is the farm’s primary focus.
“It was a great way to supplement what we were already doing and to diversify the farm even more, you know, spreading out and changing up what crops we were producing. And so it was a really good fit for us,” Calyn Colston said.
The two far western Kentucky farmers aren’t the only ones who have noticed the rich potential of the artisanal product.
According to researchers at the University of Kentucky, maple syrup production in the Commonwealth has the potential to significantly boost both state and local economies. The study published earlier this year found that Kentucky’s abundance of untapped maple trees has the capacity to produce up to $25 million annually while creating roughly 1,300 jobs.
Thomas Ochuodho is an associate professor in the Department of Natural Resources at UK, and is one of the co-authors of the study. He said that he and his fellow researchers began the study by working with farmers engaged in the Kentucky Maple Syrup Association to understand the state of the industry, and where they could potentially help them.
“We engaged some members, specifically in eastern Kentucky… asking them what they were doing, how they were doing it, some of the challenges, some of the answers that they would wish to get that would help them boost their production,” Ochuodho said.
UK also works in collaboration with the KMSA to host annual informational outreach events such as the KY Maple School and KY Maple Days.
KMSA President John Duvall said these events aim to extend knowledge of the industry far past the farmers that are already producing maple syrup.
“That's part of our outreach. As far as current producers, you know, trying to help them improve… what they've been doing. But we also invite people who have never made maple syrup,” Duvall said.
The Colstons started tapping maple trees on their farm in 2022 after Calyn attended a professional conference on the topic while working at UK. After their first test run year, the Colstons reached out to other Kentucky syrup producers directly and visited some farms on KY Maple Day, to “see if it was something feasible for us to do on our farm here.”
Lynn Rushing of Bizzell Bluff Farms in Burna was one of the farmers that the Colstons visited on their Maple Day tour. The Livingston County resident said when he first heard of farmers making maple syrup six years ago, he was shocked that it was even possible.
“Who would have thought that you could make maple syrup in Kentucky, in western Kentucky? I've always associated maple syrup with Canada, you know, and the United States, the north - northeast, and who would have thought that we could do this in West Kentucky - but it's possible,” Rushing said.
Although it is in fact possible, both farms mentioned challenges that the region faces in the production process, which they say are not as common in other parts of the state.
The Colstons said that the abundance of red maples in the flatlands of western Kentucky as opposed to sugar maples requires more sap to be collected to produce the sweet syrup.
Syrup made from the sap of sugar maple trees typically requires around 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. The Colstons said that on their farm – which tap primarily red maples – this ratio is actually closer to 60 gallons of sap per one gallon of syrup because of the tree’s lower sugar concentration compared to sugar maples. They also said that from their experience working with fellow Kentucky maple farmers, western Kentucky’s abundance of red maples is not the same in other parts of the state.
“I'm sure [western Kentucky has] a plethora of sugar maples too, but I really feel like that's more concentrated on the central and eastern part of the state. We're flatlanders out here… and so our maple syrup production looks very different than what the majority of the producers in the state looks like,” Calyn Colston said.
Rushing cited the region’s sporadic weather as an added challenge to his process, since sap from maple trees flows when temperatures are below freezing at night, but above freezing during the day.
“That's the problem with Kentucky, because it may get to zero [degrees]... at night, then we may not warm up to maybe 30 during the day. Well, you know, it's not going to do anything. Or we may have a week where it's 40 at night, then it may get to 50 during the daytime. Well, it's not going to do anything, and that's the inconsistency of where we live,” Rushing said. “But when conditions are right, we collect a lot of tree sap.”
Despite some regional challenges to maple syrup production, Calyn Colston said the process is still “rewarding and a lot of fun.” Additionally, because of the small size of the artisanal syrup industry in Kentucky, Colston said local farmers can “charge basically double with the specialty product what somebody in Vermont can charge when there's a sugar house on every corner.”
This specialty pricing is what supports the large economic potential found by UK researchers, who found that the Commonwealth has the ability to produce around 370,000 gallons of syrup a year. This estimated production quantity would rank Kentucky above some northeastern states like Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania – all of which produced less than 200,000 gallons of maple syrup in 2024 according to the USDA.
Ochuodho said to get to this point, Kentuckians should know about the potential that sits in their own backyard.
“We are trying to expand and basically sensitize the general population about this, because there are a number of people who have good conditions, meaning they have maple trees, the temperature, the climate is good, and it is just a lack of information, that they are not aware that this is something they can do,” Ochuodho said.
Duvall said this is exactly what the KMSA hopes to do through community events such as KY Maple Day. The organization wants to spread the knowledge of the industry’s potential, while also providing useful resources for those who are just starting out.
He said that the best advice he can give to anyone looking to enter the industry is to start small, and to not be afraid to ask questions.
“Tap a few trees, ask questions. ‘What do I do? How do I do it?’ That's what we're here for, to kind of mentor people who would like to get in on it,” Duvall said.
