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Sugar house/Sugar shack pages
I was looking to see what coverage Wikipedia had for maple syrup production and I was a little surprised to find no article about sugarhouses and read "Sugar Shack is much more common than putative “sugar house" when looking for an article on sugarhouses. The reason I'm surprised is I'm involved in the production of maple syrup and while the sugar shack term is used, it's my experience and from what I can see about places that produce maple syrup, they are mostly called sugarhouses. Do you have any source on the fact that sugar shack is more common?
If I look from an production perspective, the North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual has 297 references to a sugarhouse and only one mentioning a "sugar shack". In fact, the mention of "sugar shack" says that it's alternative name and that the most common name is indeed, sugarhouse.
If I look from a user perspective, again, I see numerous search results and places that include "sugar house" or "sugarhouse". A search for "sugar shack" returns results that include sugarhouses.
Again, can you supply some independent resources that confirm most people call a maple production facility a "sugar shack"?
Thanks CTMapleKing (talk) 17:28, 13 February 2026 (UTC)
- On a quick glance, I guess 'sugarhouse' is an Americanism? I guess it deserves a mention, but it's definitely not used very often. — Muckapedia (talk) 28e mars 2026 8h44 (−4h) 12:44, 28 March 2026 (UTC)
- Sugarhouse is a widely used term in maple syrup production, not just in America. I referenced the North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual above (note that it is produced by a panel of Canadians and Americans) and in addition to those sources, the following references involved in the production of maple syrup support the use of the term sugarhouse:
- https://mapleresearch.org/pub/manual/
- https://maplemuseumcentre.org/post.php?pid=13
- https://internationalmaplesyrupinstitute.com/making-the-syrup
- https://elapierre.com/en/filter-press/
- https://www.cdlinc.ca/en/products-and-equipment/
- https://www.omspa.ca/useful-downloads
- On 4 March 2017 you "moved page Sugar house to Sugar shack over redirect: Sugar Shack is much more common than putative “sugar house,” and even takes precedence in the list of names within the wikipedia article header". I asked if you had a reference to support that as a universal statement given the references above, both Canadian and American. I think there should be better reference than "I guess". CTMapleKing (talk) 12:35, 30 March 2026 (UTC)
- Your links are American sourced, with the exception of the last three. I couldn't find any reference to a "sugar house" in the cdlinc.ca page. Your last link, omspa.ca links to the 'Sweet Ontario' site which returns 14 "Sugar Shacks" and only one "Sugar House".
- You have proven that "Sugar House" is an industry term with limited currency, but it does not follow that this would be the preferred nomenclature over "Sugar Shack."
- — Muckapedia (talk) 19e mai 2026 18h02 (−4h) 22:02, 19 May 2026 (UTC)
- To be clear, I don't question whether Canadians and some Americans refer to the facility where maple syrup is produced as a sugar shack. No issue with that. However, The section of the article is dealing specifically with the production & processing of sap.
- I think the question is - what is more authoritative on the production & processing of maple sap? Is it the international governing councils whose interest it is to over see the process or is a consumer perspective more authoritative? In my view, it would be with the industry which governs the product being discussed in the article. The links I provided demonstrate the overwhelming use the sugarhouse term by those bodies.
- You stated "Your links are American sourced, with the exception of the last three." My links were intentionally international ones or Canadian, not American. I specifically sought out neutral ones to meet a higher standard. Here are the links I cited and what they are and what they mean:
- https://mapleresearch.org/pub/manual/ - This is the North American Maple Syrup Council - "The North American Maple Syrup Council, Inc. (NAMSC) is an international network of associations representing 16 commercial maple producing states and Canadian provinces within North America." You might recall that I previously mentioned that this governing body produces the manual that maple syrup producers in Canada and the U.S. reference. The manual written by this council not only uses the sugarhouse term, it uses it nearly 300 times and only mentions sugar shack once.
- https://internationalmaplesyrupinstitute.com/making-the-syrup - This is the International Maple Syrup Institute - "Founded in 1974 by American and Canadian industry leaders, the IMSI is composed of North America’s maple syrup and maple products producers and associations, maple processors, distributors and exporters, industry representatives, and equipment manufacturers, as well as connected agro-science and technology institutions." This is clearly an international group who also uses the sugarhouse term.
- https://maplemuseumcentre.org/post.php?pid=13 - "The International Maple Museum Centre is a non-profit organization chartered (Absolute Charter) by the NY State Board of Regents and is recognized by the North American Maple Syrup Council and the International Maple Syrup Institute." This museum, although based in New York is recognized by the two leading international governing bodies over maple syrup production. They use the Canadian spelling of "centre" so it is clearly not solely American. It's location does not define whether it is American or Canadian. It is both.
- https://elapierre.com/en/filter-press/ - "Lapierre has an impressive sales and distribution network with more than a hundred maple syrup consultants covering every region where maple syrup is produced in Quebec, Canada and the United States." Lapierre is a major Canadian company making maple syrup production equipment which uses the sugarhouse term.
- https://www.cdlinc.ca/en/products-and-equipment/ - [found under the CDL Intelligence section] "Introducing CDL Intelligence, a sugarhouse management system that allows the complete automation of systems and processes." CDL is another major Canadian company producing maple syrup production equipment. An important component that they make for automation specifically talks about sugarhouse management.
- https://www.omspa.ca/useful-downloads - This is the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association. Note the sugarhouse design document, not a sugar shack design document. As a Canadian organization, they could have used the sugar shack term but chose to use the international standard of sugarhouse.
- I'd be interested in why you think the North American Maple Syrup Council, the International Maple Syrup Institute, the International Maple Museum Centre are American and don't represent Canada. I'd also be interested why you think Canadian companies would choose to use the sugarhouse term if you feel that it is incorrect. Further, why would the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association use the sugarhouse term as well if that was not the name of the facility?
- Again, I don't disagree that Canadian & some American consumers use the sugar shack term but I do believe that the article should follow the best sources. You might not be familiar with the sugarhouse term but I think I've addressed the fact that it's used industry wide at every level.
- I think it all goes back to what is the most authoritative source for naming the facility where maple sap is processed. Thoughts? CTMapleKing (talk) 15:24, 21 May 2026 (UTC)