The Best Maple Syrup in Central New York

[nggallery id=21 template=carousel images=5] By Melissa Goldberg

Photography by Mackenzie Reiss

Every morning, Karl Wiles teaches social studies to 12th graders at Cato-Meridian High School in Cato, NY. By afternoon, Wiles runs Cedarvale Maple Syrup Company, a company he has developed for the past 34 years which produces 600-700 gallons of maple syrup each year. “Which [job] do I think I do on the side?” he says. “That’s a good question.”

When I first entered the store, I found Wiles quietly sitting in the back, observing the customers as they pondered his products. I expected Wiles’ presence to reflect his teaching career—constantly in the foreground. I soon learned Wiles is, indeed, a man of many words. Before touring the sugarhouse, the cashier jokes, “Karl will tell you everything you have ever possibly wanted to know about syrup. Everything.”

Wiles spent the next hour transforming me from a syrup novice—I had only ever thought of it as a pancake condiment—to a connoisseur. He debunked the common misconceptions (sap is actually colorless, not brown) and explained the differences among syrup varieties. “The darker colors have heavier flavor,” he said. “Some people like one, but some people like the other—kind of like red and white wine.”

This man knows his syrup. He first learned the art more than 34 years ago, while attending college in Quebec, which he calls “the heart of maple-sugaring.” Even with such extensive knowledge, Wiles’ all-time favorite maple-inspired recipe is a surprisingly simple dish: corned beef, cooked traditionally. Topped, of course, with a maple glaze.