Maple Sugar

       Maple sugar is one of the most enjoyable gifts that the Native Americans have given to us. The eastern woodland natives used maple sugar in almost all of their foods.

       Sugaring time came in early spring. When the days became warm and sunny but the nights were still freezing cold, the sap began to move. Sometimes this happened as early as February and lasted until April. Sugaring time was the high spot of the year. The work was hard, but everybody had a good time, especially the children, who were allowed to make taffy by pouring the syrup on the snow to harden. They even drank the sap just as it came from the tree.

       Everyone had a job to do. The men repaired the sugaring camp and the large containers in which the sap was boiled. The women carefully washed the birchbark pails and resealed the cracks with pitch from the fir tree.

       When the sap began to move, about three hundred sugar maple trees were tapped for their sugary sap. A V-shaped gash was slashed in the bark, and a spout of elder was attached at the point of the V. Under the spout a birchbark pail was hung to catch the dripping sap. It took twenty-four hours for about two gallons of sap to drip from each tree. When the pails were full they were collected and the raw sap was poured into large basswood vats for temporary storage.

       The first flow of sap was always the best and the last was the worst. The natives, however, never threw away any of the sap, for they were sure that by doing so they would offend their gods or spirits, who, in turn, would punish them by stopping the flow of sap completely.

       The vats of raw sap were carefully protected from the sun because the sap soured very readily. Later the sap was boiled down in large containers over a slow fire. The scum that always appeared during the boiling was skimmed off as it rose to the surface. As it boiled, the sap thickened into syrup. To test the consistency of the syrup a little of it was poured on the snow now and then. When the syrup candied, or hardened, it was ready to be poured into molds. The Menomini natives poured the warm thick syrup into wooden troughs where, as it cooled and hardened, it was crushed and pounded into lumps. Finally the maple sugar was stored away in birchbark baskets to be used as needed. Maple syrup was made by boiling the sap for a shorter period of time and pouring it out before it started to sugar, or turn grainy.

       This method of making maple sugar was worked out by the woodland natives  long before the time of Columbus. We make maple sugar today in exactly the same way the natives  did.

       Not only did the natives  get sugar from maple sap but they also got a kind of vinegar by allowing some of the sap to become sour. This vinegar was used in preparing venison. Later the venison was sweetened with maple sugar. This is much the same, of course, as our sweet-sour method of cooking.

       In those early times everyone used maple sugar. It's slightly burned flavor was enjoyed by the native people, and by the settlers too. Very little white cane sugar was used by the settlers because it was too expensive. Only the very wealthy could afford it. Today, of course, everyone uses white sugar. Although one does not have to be wealthy to eat maple sugar today, it is much more expensive than white sugar. We eat maple sugar mostly in the form of candy or in the maple syrup that we pour over our pancakes at breakfast. Svoboda

Read more about the gifts from Native Americans:

• Gifts From The Native Americans  
• Cultivated Plants 
• Wild Plants
• Nuts and Berries
• Beverages
• Seasoning
• Bark and Bast
• Medicine
• Gourds and Pumpkins and Their Uses

Menomini natives poured the warm thick syrup into wooden troughs where, 
as it cooled and hardened, it was crushed and pounded into lumps.