can you become a maple syrup farmer?

Yes, there are mass producers. But since the time to harvest maple water is only a few weeks in early spring, this is something that cannot keep someone busy 12 months in a year.

its a hobby, not a living

Growing the trees will take a lot of time.

When you finally have enough sap running to make it worthwhile to boil it down to syrup, you will need an outdoors facility. Boiling indoors will ruin your house or barn, because you will create an indoor rainstorm.

It's a lot cheaper to buy maple syrup from an established producer. You could buy in quantity and put your own label on it, but you had better be able to give your customers a reason to buy from you rather than someone else.

You can if you have sugar bush. It is also easy to sell maple syrup on a small or large scale. Of course, Vermont Maple Syrup is only from Vermont.

First, you have to have a lot of land to grow the right species of maple trees. Then, you need a distillery to boil it all down until it becomes maple syrup. Only if you have a huge production can you earn enough money during maple syrup harvest time. This is why a maple syrup business is often just part of someone's income. It is a labor or love for profit. There is a lot of work that goes into making pure maple syrup and that's why is it over $8.00 for a small bottle.

Considering I only have two large sugar maples and can only produce a small amount of maple syrup from them. Nope, I can't become large scale producer, can't produce enough.

Little known fact, maple syrup comes from a tree

Maple syrup is a well controlled industry. VERY well controlled ..Similar to the diamond industry! It is in my own opinion that if you did not grow up into the industry, you will play heck to break into it! I wish you all the best!