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Native Americans have been credited as the first to discover
that the sweet sap from a maple tree could be processed into
maple syrup. It is one of the few processes that was not
brought to the United States by European settlers. While there are many interesting and wonderful stories about
the origin and history of maple syrup, there are no authenticated
accounts of how the process was discovered.
One
of the most popular legends about the history of maple
syrup involves a Native American chief
who discovered the clear liquid sap seeping from a tree he
had stuck his tomahawk into. As the day got warmer the sap
seeped into a cooking pot on the ground. The chief’s wife,
after tasting it and discovering it tasted quite good cooked
his meat in it. The chief was so impressed with the sweet
taste of the maple meat he named it Sinzibudkwud
which means “drawn from trees”. Native Americans still
quite often use this word when referring to maple syrup.
Soon they discovered that cutting or (wounding) a maple tree
in early spring caused it to ooze a sweet clear liquid that
could be processed into a sweet product they found to be
delicious. Most stories probably have been modified over
the years, but the discovery of maple syrup most likely was
accidental.
Over the years they learned
they could gradually reduce the sap to syrup by repeatedly
freezing it, discarding the ice, and stating over again.
They could store up to 30 pounds of maple sugar in
containers made of birch bark.
Eventually some of the
Native American tribes began to process the maple sap over
fire. The women would migrate to the maple groves or “sugar
bushes” during early spring to process the maple syrup.
They made troughs in which they collected the sap and
brought it to the fire. The sap was heated by adding heated
stones. Freshly heated stones would be added while removing
older cooler stones to be reheated. Most early Native
Americans preferred sugar over salt and used maple syrup or
sugar on their meat and fish.
Early settlers imitated the
Native American methods to make their maple syrup. They
would boil the sap over an open fire until it reduced down
to syrup. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon
of syrup, which was a labor intensive and time consuming
operation. Not much changed for the next two hundred years,
and then during the civil war the tin can was invented. It
wasn’t long before syrup makers discovered that a large flat
sheet of metal could make a much more efficient pan to boil
maple sap than the previously used heavy rounded iron
kettle.
Most original syrup makers
were dairy farmers who made maple syrup and sugar for their
own use, or a little extra income during the off season.
They continually looked for a more efficient and faster way
to make their syrup. Many innovative ideas and processes
evolved over the years, but for the most part technology
stayed the same for another century. In the 1960’s it was
so labor intensive and time consuming it was no longer
possible for small farmers to sustain themselves. They
could not afford to hire the large number of people required
to tap the trees and haul the small buckets to the
evaporator house.
Finally with the energy
crunch of the 1970’s another surge of technological
breakthroughs occurred. Tubing systems were developed, and
vacuum pumps added to draw the sap directly from the trees
to the evaporator house. Pre-heaters that “recycle”
heat which previously was lost were developed, and
reverse-osmosis filters that remove a portion of the water
out of the sap before it is boiled were introduced into the
process.
Technological
developments continue today with new filtering techniques,
better tubing, “supercharged” pre-heaters, and improved
storage containers.
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