OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 106A ************************************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ohfiles.htm ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 April 26, 2008 http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/know.htm ************************************************ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio Tid-Bits -- Part 106 A. Maple Syrup ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ One of my fondest memories were of the harvesting of the Sap of the Maple trees in which all the neighbors, friends, and family gathered at just the right time of the year, when the sap was ready to flow. The Indians called it " stinzibukwud , " meaning drawn from wood. They were the first who showed the French and early settlers how to get the sap of the sugar maple, and reduce it into a sweet, thick liquid know as maple syrup. In early March, when the days started to become warm but nights were still freezing the Native Americans would tap the trunk of a Maple and insert a curved piece of bark into the opening, probably taped by a tomahawk in V-shaped incisions into the trees, and then inerting the conclaved pieces of bark, channeled the sap into buckets made of wood bark. Today we use buckets. The sap was then concentrated by throwing hot rocks into these buckets. so we can see that the Indians showed the colonists an integral part of colonel life. For two hundred years maple sugar was the cheapest and sometimes the only accessible sweetner available to the American colonists. It is said that trees planted by the pilgrams in 1620 are still giving sap today. The sweet-water sap from which syrup is made is different from the circulatory sap of the growing tree. It is a special seasonal secretion. Whn the tree is dorment, the sep will flow from any wound in the sapwood, such as a taphole, each time a period of freezing is followed by a period of thawing. Normal tapping does not deplete the tree's resources. It removes only about 8 percent of the tree's sugar, which is easily replaced the following year. Although the sap contains 1.5 to 3 percent solids, mostly in the form of sucrose ( a type of sugar ), it does not have the color or flavoe of maple syrup unril after it has been processed. For a good run of sap, the weather should be alternately freezing and thawng and if it remains either warm or cold, the flow of the sap slows or stops. As the climate becomes favorable, the sap begins to flow for as little as five days or as long as five weeks, depening on seasonal conditions. To tap the tree of the Red Maple, Ohio farmers on the Reserve, drilled holes into the bark at waist level. They drilled one to three holes, depending on the size and sturdiness of each tree. Sprouts are the driven into the holes. Most of the Ohio farmers hung pails on the sprouts to collect the drpping sap. The sap may run swiftly or slowly,and the amount of sap produced varied from tree to traa. My grandfather told me that if the tree was good, the flow would range from 120 to 400 drops a minute, which amounts to an average yield of about 35 gallons of sap per season. Boiled down, this yields about 1 gallon of syrup or 8 pounds of sugar. The maple syrup is made by boiling down the sap. Constant watch is kept to moniter the syrups thickness. Impurities are strained out, and the syrup is canned quickly so that it will not become soured by bacteria. The Maple sugar is obtained by boiling down the syrup until enough liquid has evaporated to cause the residue to granulate. Maple syrup collecting in Ohio was a memoral one for us children, as we were allowed to skip school and accompany our parents, relatives and friends to the collecting grroves of Red Maple. Everyone would pitch in on the collecting, and the boiling down around the camping fires or the little boiling down shacks that were hastily put up. We all carried buckets of sap to the boiling down. Cold nights would be spent around the fires, where we children would hear tales about the earliest of days and the Indian legions told were rememberable. I shall tell some of these legends at the end of this article. The boiling down of the sap always left a sweet water in which all of us children loved to drink. Of course this was abter the straining process was completed. This warm sweet water was like a sweet tea, and warmed us from the chill in the air. We spent our sleeping hours in the wagons under the down of Mother's and Grandmothers comforters. Everyone, had their jobs to do like carrying buckets, caring for the mules and horses, as well as cleaning up the campsites. Of course, Mother and Grandmother had their hands full with the sugaing down and canning process. As for food all of the firends, relatives, neighbors, pitched in. Catching rabbits, wild turkey, and etc was left up to all. I can assure you we all had good and fullfilling meals during these times. FlapJacks were sweetned with the maple syrup. and the grits were boiled in the sweetwater of the boiling down process Nothing was wasted, as the times were not of the most prosperous of times. Farming was not easy in those days, as seeds had to be planted and fields had to be tilled. Animals had to be raised and good care had to be taken of them, as carefuly as my parents took care of my brothers and sisters Mother always was working day and night, I do not know how she ever made the day as long as the chores were. She helped to teach us good christian values, in which we have carried on down today. Fond memories follow me --- as did the Maple Syrup harvesting and of other gatherings that we as a family always partipated in. Giving us a since of well being and the best of mmories. ++++++++++++ While the Earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. -- Genesis 8, 22 -- +++++++++++++++ Part 106 B -- Indian Legends