Maple Syrup Time

“The sugar-making season was ever hailed with delight by the boys of the household in colonial days, who found in this work in the woods a wonderful outlet for the love of wild life which was strong in them. It had in truth a touch of going a-gypsying, if any work as hard as sugaring-off could have anything in common with gypsy life. The maple-trees were tapped as soon as the sap began to run in the trunk and showed at the end of the twigs; this was in late winter if mild, or in the earliest spring. A notch was cut in the trunk of the tree at a convenient height from the ground, usually four or five feet, and the running sap was guided by setting in the notch a semicircular basswood spout cut and set with a special tool called a tapping-gauge. In earlier days the trees were ‘boxed,’ that is, a great gash cut across the side and scooped out and down to gather the sap. This often proved fatal to the trees, and [the practice] was abandoned. A trough, usually made of a butternut log about three feet long, was dug out, Indian fashion, and placed under the end of the spout. These troughs were made deep enough to hold about ten quarts. In later years a hole was bored in the tree with an augur; and sap-buckets were used instead of troughs.”

This passage is from HOME LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS, “written by Alice Morse Earle in the year MDCCCXCVIII” [published by Macmillan Company the same year] and “Illustrated by Photographs, Gathered by the Author, of Real Things, Works and Happenings of Olden Times.” An image from Earle’s book contrasts with the modern equivalent, technology having changed radically, but as visiting friends from Australia assured us after a stint in the sugar bush of relatives, the work and the fun are much the same. Our friends did go indoors to sleep after their work, however, unlike the colonial boys who, “When there was a ‘good run of sap,’” might camp out several nights in a row. “Indeed,” Ms. Earle noted in this chapter (“Food From Forest and Sea”), “I have never heard any one speak nor seen any account of a night spent in a sugar-camp except with keen expressions of delight. If possible, the time was chosen during a term of moonlight; the snow still covered the fields and its pure shining white light could be seen through the trees.”

We have had cold, clear nights and shining moonlight this wint’ry spring. Here’s hoping it will be a good maple syrup and sugar season.