Blessed with an abundance of maples on the farm he bought 13 years ago, Glen Hale took his cue from nature: He decided to make syrup.
But it is his location, in Bucks County - not in Vermont, or in one of Pennsylvania's bountiful maple regions - that has made it unusual.
From 600 trees scattered around their farm in Tinicum, Glen and Cindy Hale will make about 120 gallons of syrup this year.
Pennsylvania is among the top maple syrup-producing states in the nation, ranking sixth last season, producing 66,000 gallons, from more than 100 sugar makers throughout the state.
At this time of year, when the nights are cold but the days start to feel like spring, Hale and other Pennsylvania sugar makers tap their maple trees and collect the watery sap they reduce into the tasty sweetener used by American Indians, colonists - and, more recently, modern-day food enthusiasts.
But when Hale tapped his trees in the time-honored way this season, he was also tapping into a food trend.
McCormick, the spice company, included maple in its 2007 Flavor Forecast, an annual prediction of flavor trends based on interviews with top chefs, restaurant menus, and grocery-store inventory.
"We truly believe maple is on the trendy side," said Laurie Harrsen, McCormick's director of consumer communications. "We see it being used at restaurants with top chefs across the country." Locally, executive chef Matthew Levin at Lacroix at the Rittenhouse has been using fresh maple syrup in his cooking for about a year.
The beauty of maple is its complexity, Harrsen said: "It has a rich sweetness, a brown note, almost a caramelized note. It's not like the yucky straight sweet with just sugar. It has so much more richness and depth." Look for maple flavor in Asian foods, with meats and seafoods and even tea, Harrsen said.
The trendiness of this classic woodland product is a source of great amusement to Bob Hansen, an official with the Pennsylvania State University cooperative extension who assists the state's syrup producers.
"Now the gourmet people are starting to catch on to what us people in the Northland knew a long time ago," said Hansen, who works in Towanda, Bradford County.
Most syrup produced in Pennsylvania is sold in the state, at small roadside stands, farm markets, and local supermarkets, Hansen said.
Sitting on a wooden crate in a steamy little cabin, Glen Hale filled a small glass jug with the sweet amber result of that recent morning's toil and boil.
