Michigan Maple Syrup Native Americans have been given credit 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 discoveries that was not introduced to this country by European settlers. While we have are many (fasinating 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 stories about the history of maple syrup revolves around a Native American chief who realized the clear liquid sap leaking out of a tree he had stuck his tomahawk into. As the day warmed up the sap dripped into a cooking pot on the ground. The chief’s wife, after tasting it and believing it tasted quite good cooked the chief’s meat in it. The chief enjoyed the sweet taste of the maple meat so much that he named it Sinzibudkwud which means “drawn from trees”. Native Americans still quite often use this word when referring to maple syrup. Before long they discovered that slashing or (wounding) a maple tree in early spring caused it to ooze a sweet clear liquid which could be processed into a sweet product they found to be delicious. Most legends probably were changed over the years, but discovering maple syrup most likely was accidental. Over the years it was discovered they could gradually reduce the sap to syrup by continually refreezing it, discarding the ice, and stating over again. They would store up to 30 pounds of this sugar in containers made of birch bark. Eventually a few of the Native American tribes began to cook the maple sap over fire. The tribal women would migrate to the maple groves which were called “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 boiled the sap over an open fire until it reduced down to syrup. It requires about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup, which was a very labor intensive and time consuming operation. Not much changed over the next two hundred years, and then during the civil war the tin can was invented. It didn’t take long before syrup makers discovered that a large flat sheet of metal would 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 consumption, or a little extra income during the off season. They were always looking for a more efficient and faster way to make their syrup. Quiet a few ingenious 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 carry 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 installed, and vacuum pumps added to bring the sap directly from the trees to the evaporator house. Pre-heaters that “recycle” heat which previously was lost were installed, and reverse-osmosis filters that remove a portion of the water out of the sap before it is boiled were developed. Technological developments continue today with new filtering techniques, better tubing, “supercharged” pre-heaters, and improved storage containers.
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Michigan Maple Syrup
Ken Asselin in webmaster for the Selections Guide series of websites. You can visit his Michigan Maple Syrup website at: http://www.michigan-maple-syrup.com
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