The History of Maple Syrup Production

The History of Maple
Syrup Production
American Maple Museum
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PO Box 81
9756 State Route 812
Croghan, NY 13327
315-­‐346-­‐1107
Email: [email protected]
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• Web: www.americanmaplemuseum.org
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The NaJve American’s first fesJval of spring was a day long ceremony of dancing, games, burning sacred tobacco, and feasJng, thanking the creator for the ‘maple’ and the forest.
“Sinzibuckwud,” is the Algonquin word for maple syrup, meaning “drawn from wood.”
How was Maple Syrup Discovered:
• Legend has it that the first maple syrup maker was an Iroquois woman, the wife of Chief Woksis. One late-­‐winter morning, the story goes, the chief headed out on one of his hunts, but not before yanking his tomahawk from the tree where he’d thrown it the night before. On this parJcular day the weather turned quite warm, causing the tree’s sap to run and fill a container standing near the trunk. The woman spied the vessel and, thinking it was plain water, cooked their evening meal in it. The boiling that ensued turned the sap to syrup, flavoring the chief’s meal as never before. And thus began the tradiJon of making maple syrup.
NaJve American Slashing Technique
The Morse Ancestors who helped secle Central Vermont were taught to tap maple trees by NaJve Americans. The Algonquins would insert reeds or concave pieces of bark to run the sap into buckets, oeen made from birch bark.
Slashes were cut into trees and birch buckets, such as the ones seen below, were placed on the ground to collect sap.
Heated stones were used to boil sap in a wooden trough or a green birch-­‐bark vessel full of sap was placed directly over a fire.
Pioneers could boil a year’s supply of sugar thus making Americans self-­‐
sufficient in sugar producJon.
European InnovaJons
The European metal pot made boiling
easier and more efficient.
Benjamin Franklin promoted massive sugar producJon in the Northeast to make the country less dependent on “foreign” sugar.
Thomas Jefferson even started a maple plantaJon at MonJcello in 1791.
Further Innovations
The black pan and arch added efficiency. Metal Tubing
Introduced in the early 1900’s, metal tubing was the predecessor to plasJc tubing. It never received widespread use due to a few key flaws. Plastic Tubing Collection Systems
Plastic Tubing was one of several inventions
by Robert Lamb, the donor of the building
that now houses the American Maple Museum
Robert Lamb, NY, receives a patent in 1966 for his tubing collecJon system invenJon. The diagram shows how the tubing “fins” keep the tubing on top of the snow. Previously, the warmer sap flowing through the tubing would cause the tubing to melt into the snow, as a result, more Jme spent pulling lines out of the snow.
Maple History Timeline
• 1540 Jacques CarJer first observed North American maple trees while exploring the St. Lawrence River.
• 1557 First wricen account of maple sugaring in North America by André de Thevet, a French monk, in Les Singularites de la France AntarcJque.
• 1606 Marc Lescarbot describes collecJon and "disJllaJon" of maple sap by Micmac Indians in the Histoirie de la Nouvelle France.
• 1788 Quakers manufacture and promote the use of maple sugar as an alternaJve to West Indian cane sugar, which is produced with slave labor.
• 1791 Thomas Jefferson, promoJng maple sugar as a "homegrown alternaJve" to slave-­‐produced cane sugar from the West Indies, starts a maple plantaJon at MonJcello.
• 1810 Wooden spouts, or sap spiles, become popular with the use of augers, replacing the crude gashing or "boxing" techniques.
• 1818 Maple sugar sells for half the price of imported cane sugar.
1850 The introducJon of the "sugar shack" or "sugarhouse," the outdoor shack or building used to boil down sap.
1858 D.M. Cook of Ohio patents the first evaporaJng pan.
1860 Eli Mosher patents the first metal sap spout (tap).
1860 Peak maple producJon year for the United States, with 40 million pounds of maple sugar and 1.6 million gallons of maple syrup reported to the USDA.
1864 David Ingalls patents an evaporator pan with baffles in the bocom to help channel the boiling sap.
1872 H. Allen Soule or Vermont designs the first evaporator with two pans and a metal arch or firebox, decreasing boiling Jme.
1875 The metal sap collecJon buckets were first introduced.
1880 Cane sugar and maple sugar are approximately equal in price.
1884 G.H. Grimm of Ohio patents the first sugar evaporator.
1885 Cane sugar is cheaper than maple sugar for the first Jme.
1888 Leader Evaporator Co. is founded in Vermont, becoming the dominant maple-­‐
equipment supplier.
1889 Small Brothers of Quebec patented an evaporator that bent the pan into a series of flues, increasing the heated surface area of the pan and decreasing boiling Jme.
1891 McKinley Bill acempts to promote maple sugar manufactured by offering a two-­‐cents-­‐per-­‐pound bounty to producers.
1893 Vermont Maple Sugar Makers' AssociaJon is formed, playing a huge role in setng industry-­‐wide standards.
1904 Cary Maple Sugar Company becomes incorporated in Vermont, becoming the largest wholesale sugar company in North America.
1906 U.S. Pure Food and Drug Act makes adulteraJon of maple syrup with glucose illegal.
1916 W.C. Brower of New York invents metal sap-­‐gathering tubing, which eventually proves impracJcal due to freezing at night and leakage.
1935 Vermont insJtutes spring Maple FesJvals, with 134 towns across the state staging events (the Vermont Maple FesJval in St. Albans, Vermont, conJnues to this day).
1940-­‐1945 Maple prices hold steady at $3.39/gallon during World War II.
1946 The first commerical power-­‐tapping machine is marketed.
1946 The Proctor Maple Research Center, an Agricultural Experiment StaJon of the University of Vermont, is founded.
1959 Nelson Griggs of Vermont patents the first plasJc sap-­‐gathering pipeline system.
1970s Reverse-­‐osmosis technology is introduced to concentrate sugar content of the sap before boiling.
1988 The North American Sugar Maple Decline Project begins studying the health of maple trees to determine maple decline.
2007 Timothy Perkins of the Proctor Maple Research Center patents a tap that prevents bacterial contaminaJon and backflow of sap.
Nelson S. Griggs receives patent in 1959 for his Sap CollecJon System.
Vacuum Systems
Unique Artifacts at the American Maple
Museum
What is a Sugar Devil?
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, maple sap was produced into maple sugar, a granular, solid block of maple that had a long shelf-­‐life and could be easily transported. Maple sugar was promoted by the Quakers and aboliJonists as an alternaJve to West Indian “slave-­‐produced” cane sugar.
Fun Fact:
A healthy tree 10-­‐17 inches in diameter (31-­‐53 inch circumference) should have no more than one tap. A tree 18-­‐24 inches in diameter (57-­‐75 inch circumference) should have no more than two taps. A tree larger than 25 inches in diameter (79-­‐
inch circumference) should have no more than three taps.
Maple Sugar ConfecJon Molds
Fun Fact:
The overwhelming majority of maple syrup is produced in forests where no herbicides or pesJcides have been applied. Therefore, most maple syrup would be considered organic.
Fun Fact:
Maple syrup can be subsJtuted for white sugar in cooking. Use 1 cup maple syrup for 1 cup white sugar. Reduce liquid in recipe by 3 Tablespoons for each cup of syrup used. Maple sugar can replace white sugar in equal amounts.
Wooden Maple Sugar ConfecJon Mold Fun Fact:
Around 300 different natural flavor compounds have been found in pure maple syrup, though not all in the same syrup. Your nose detects most of these compounds. There is a compound linked to maple flavor that is present in all pure maple products, but varies in amount between producers and Jme of year. Other prominent flavors are sugars, caramel, and vanilla. Nucy, bucery, floral (honey), cereal, chocolate, and coffee flavors can be found in some syrups. As is the case for most natural products, maple syrups have complex flavor chemistry to delight your sense of taste and smell.
Fun Facts:
Syrup flavor is affected by soil type, tree geneJcs, weather condiJons during the maple season, Jme during the season when the sap is collected, and processing technique. Producers in every region consistently are able to produce good tasJng, high quality products, but no region is always becer than another. Pure maple is a natural product with considerable variaJon in flavors. Like wines, this variaJon should be sampled and enjoyed.
Fun Fact:
In 2012, thieves in Canada stole over $18
million worth of syrup, which weighed in at over
6 million pounds.
North American Maple Hall of Fame
Currently, there are 83 members from Vermont, New York, Ohio, ConnecJcut, New Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Massachusecs, Minnesota, Nova ScoJa, Quebec & Ontario who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame for their achievements in research, development and leadership in the maple industry. Fun Fact:
Maple syrup has about 200 calories per 1/4 cup, zero cholesterol, and zero fat!
"They say blood is thicker than water,
but maple syrup is thicker than blood.
Therefore my loyalties lie with pancakes."
-Anonymous