Something sweet

Bob Handelman

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Even with a $40 billion endowment, it never hurts to have a side hustle. For Yale, it’s maple syrup. The School of the Environment is now offering syrup from trees tapped in the Yale-Myers Forest in northeastern Connecticut. It’s the brainchild of Joseph Orefice ’09MF, director of forest and agricultural operations, who came back to Yale in 2018 from Cornell—where he had managed a large maple-tapping operation. With a grant from the USDA, Orefice launched an outreach program to encourage syrup production in Connecticut. This year, students made 112 gallons of syrup from 215 trees in the forest. And the syrup is on sale. “I wanted to remind folks at Yale that we have forests, and that they’re something we should care about,” says Orefice.

Don’t look for Yale Forest syrup in your grocery store, though. It’s only available for pickup at the Environment School, and only by the case: $180 for 12 8-ounce bottles. (Order at https://tinyurl.com/yalemaplesyrup.) But if that’s too hard, Orefice has another idea: find a local producer and buy your syrup from them. “I’d really love it if you supported them,” he says.