If only it were simple! When I was a kid, we made maple syrup, but never achieved sugar. What you do is tap maple trees in the spring when the sap is flowing. Then boil it down. It takes a long time to boil maple sap down to become syrup. Sugar happens at a specific temperature point. For a home cook, it comes as soon as you're not looking, and then you have (yet another) charred pot with burned hydrocarbons on your hands.

What is maple sugar? Expensive!

According to wikipedia: "Maple sugar is what remains after the sap of the sugar maple is boiled for longer than is needed to create maple syrup or maple taffy. Once almost all the water has been boiled off, all that is left is a solid sugar."