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When Gothamist was a little kid we always looked forward to our Upstate vacations. Sure, helping Grandpa milk the cows was fun, and visiting our older cousins was always a treat, but the real treat came at night. Our cousins lived a mile or two north of a Nestle's Chocolate plant. On nights with a southerly breeze the whole town would fill with the smell of chocolate. It was as if we had moved to Willy Wonka's town. Awesome!
Many years later we moved to a college town in the Midwest. We didn't have much time or much choice in apartments so we rented the first decent place shown to us. Little did we know that the apartment was two blocks away from a potato chip factory. When the wind was right we would be overwhelmed with the smell of frying oil. It was as if the whole town smelled like the interior of Pomme Frites. Not so awesome! We could not eat chips for a long time. When we complained to friends and colleagues who were long-time residents of town we were met with a universal response, "You should have smelled the place before the ketchup plant burnt down. Now that was really bad!"
That we occasionally smell the maple syrup smell can be considered a good thing. It shows us how much cleaner the air is in post-industrial, post-Clean Air Act, New York. The air could be cleaner but at least the East River is no longer lined with tanneries, TriBeCa isn't a parfumerie of dairy products, horse manure and printer's inks, and Secausus isn't the hog rendering capital of the world. As Jake astutely observer earlier, last night's maple syrup smell (Gothamist smelled it too!) played out like in the NY Times scenario: Thursday night + temperature inversion that prevents air from mixing + winds from the west to northwest = maple syrup smell!
Tonight might be an interesting test as meteorological conditions will be similar to last night but not as cold. Saturday will be sunny and mild, high temperatures in the lower 50s. It stays warm on Sunday but clouds and rain will move in later in the day.
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So you visited Fulton, NY? Sadly, the Nestle plant is long gone...
Yep, my aunt worked there and a cousin was head of the union. We later moved upstate to near Fulton.
Damn, I missed this episode of Maple Syrup: NYC. I will walk around tonight sniffing furiously.
ketchup & chip factories? so you went to college at bowling green state university in bowling green, ohio, eh? least you could have done is mention it by name instead of pretentiously calling it the midwest. sheesh, this why i cannot stand manhattan/nyc move-ins.
I was a faculty member at BGSU. Not sure why calling it the midwest instead of BG is pretentious but if that's your reason for disliking me I'm fine with it.
When I was a kid I spent a couple summers in a small town in Wisconsin with some relatives There were some culture shock moments since it is scary seeing a statistically insignificant number of non-whites and seeing "supper clubs" which are what we would call "restaurants" since there were no floor shows or anything.
One of the more pungent things I recall is a vinegar factory which depending on how the wind was blowing in from the lake you could smell for some distance. The one good thing from there is cheddar cheese curds, either raw or breaded and deep fried.
just a reminder from up here in putney vermont that there's been less snow and more warm than typical, but that the air is always fresh, and that what you smell is maple cordwood from our fireplaces, and soon, the sweetest smell: maple sap boiling ... mark your calendar on 2/18 for the sugar on snow festival
When living in St. Louis, my kids and I loved driving by the Pillsbury plant that made pasteries, breads, etc. The smell of yeast and vanilla was always fantastic! There was a Pillsbury store closeby and we always had to stop and grab a goody!
So, I know I'm late, but still confused. What actually causes this occasional Maple Syrup Smell up there in NY. I'm in florida and we don't get to smell it here. I was reserching MSUD and came upon this site talking about the Maple Syrup Phenomema in NY and neighboring states. Someone Please explain. Just curious!