Sugarmaker
01-23-2014, 03:56 PM
Folks,
This article is taken from the January 21 1919 Weston Independent Newspaper, Weston, West Virgina.
The paper published this and many articles (sketches) that my great, great grandfather John R King wrote about his early days. He was 76 when he wrote this. This one is about making maple sugar. Keep in mind it was written almost 100 years ago, about a time 70 years earlier, so set your mind on about 1845.
Written by John R. King:
A good many things were gotten up for people to eat in much the same way at that time we find them now, therefore I am going to tell you about a few of the good things we had to eat when I was a boy, and the things that are not often seen now. Sugar at that time was not kept in stores in great quantities, and was course and dark. Granulated sugar was not to be seen anywhere then, so people made maple sugar.
They hewed out poplar troughs to catch the "sugarwater" and bored a half inch hole into the tree, then got a piece of elder or sumac about a foot long and punched the pith out of it and fit it into the hole for a spile. Sap buckets were never heard of then, and such a thing as a evaporator was nowhere to be seen, so when we got ready to boil down our "sugarwater" we used iron kettles.
We would choose a spot where the ground was a little sloping for our boiling place, then we would dig out a place long enough to hang 4 or 5 kettles, then make a rough wall of stone for a back wall, then roll in a good sized log for a fore stick, then we settled for a strong fork at each end of the boiling place, then laid a strong pole across from fork to fork, then great wooden hooks were cut out of a little tree with one of the limbs for the hook, the long piece was about 4 feet long with a pin fixed in the lower end for the kettle to hang on. The end with the hook was hooked over the pole;
It was a hard job sometimes to gather up enough of the kettles for our needs. Sometimes we would have to go for miles for a borrowed kettle which was carried upside down on top of our head. It was pretty hard work but we always put something soft in the bottom of the kettle so it wouldn't hurt our heads so much, but we soon forgot all the hardships of sugarmaking when we got around a sugar kettle with our paddles at a "stirring off" as it was called, and I can truthfully say that licking the paddle at the sugar kettle was something worth remembering.
The sap was boiled down in the iron kettles till it was nearly ready for sugar then all that was rich enough was dipped out of the iron kettles into a copper kettle then the white of one egg or more was put into the syrup to clear it, then all the impurities would come to the top and were skimmed off, then the syrup was boiled for a short time it was tested to see if it was thick enough for sugar.
The testing was done by taking a little of the sugar (syrup?) and dropping it into a cup of cold water then it was taken in the fingers, and as soon as it was cool enough it was dropped several times down in the water and just as soon as it had the proper click, when it hit the bottom of the cup, then it was sugar and was poured out and molded into cakes of various sizes and shapes, crocks, pans, teacups, small dishes and even egg shells were used for molds.
One of our cherished favors was when we could coax our mother to break a little hole in the little end of the egg she used for clarifying the syrup, then pour out the contents of the egg, then fill the shell with sugar, these we called our Easter eggs and would save them till Easter morning and if they had been gold eggs we could not have valued them more.
We used to make 100 pounds of sugar in our sugar camp and that was thought to be enough for one year's use in an ordinary family, it seemed to be enough for us.
Hope you enjoyed this step back in 'sugaring' time, some things change, some don't change much in 150 years.
Regards,
Chris
This article is taken from the January 21 1919 Weston Independent Newspaper, Weston, West Virgina.
The paper published this and many articles (sketches) that my great, great grandfather John R King wrote about his early days. He was 76 when he wrote this. This one is about making maple sugar. Keep in mind it was written almost 100 years ago, about a time 70 years earlier, so set your mind on about 1845.
Written by John R. King:
A good many things were gotten up for people to eat in much the same way at that time we find them now, therefore I am going to tell you about a few of the good things we had to eat when I was a boy, and the things that are not often seen now. Sugar at that time was not kept in stores in great quantities, and was course and dark. Granulated sugar was not to be seen anywhere then, so people made maple sugar.
They hewed out poplar troughs to catch the "sugarwater" and bored a half inch hole into the tree, then got a piece of elder or sumac about a foot long and punched the pith out of it and fit it into the hole for a spile. Sap buckets were never heard of then, and such a thing as a evaporator was nowhere to be seen, so when we got ready to boil down our "sugarwater" we used iron kettles.
We would choose a spot where the ground was a little sloping for our boiling place, then we would dig out a place long enough to hang 4 or 5 kettles, then make a rough wall of stone for a back wall, then roll in a good sized log for a fore stick, then we settled for a strong fork at each end of the boiling place, then laid a strong pole across from fork to fork, then great wooden hooks were cut out of a little tree with one of the limbs for the hook, the long piece was about 4 feet long with a pin fixed in the lower end for the kettle to hang on. The end with the hook was hooked over the pole;
It was a hard job sometimes to gather up enough of the kettles for our needs. Sometimes we would have to go for miles for a borrowed kettle which was carried upside down on top of our head. It was pretty hard work but we always put something soft in the bottom of the kettle so it wouldn't hurt our heads so much, but we soon forgot all the hardships of sugarmaking when we got around a sugar kettle with our paddles at a "stirring off" as it was called, and I can truthfully say that licking the paddle at the sugar kettle was something worth remembering.
The sap was boiled down in the iron kettles till it was nearly ready for sugar then all that was rich enough was dipped out of the iron kettles into a copper kettle then the white of one egg or more was put into the syrup to clear it, then all the impurities would come to the top and were skimmed off, then the syrup was boiled for a short time it was tested to see if it was thick enough for sugar.
The testing was done by taking a little of the sugar (syrup?) and dropping it into a cup of cold water then it was taken in the fingers, and as soon as it was cool enough it was dropped several times down in the water and just as soon as it had the proper click, when it hit the bottom of the cup, then it was sugar and was poured out and molded into cakes of various sizes and shapes, crocks, pans, teacups, small dishes and even egg shells were used for molds.
One of our cherished favors was when we could coax our mother to break a little hole in the little end of the egg she used for clarifying the syrup, then pour out the contents of the egg, then fill the shell with sugar, these we called our Easter eggs and would save them till Easter morning and if they had been gold eggs we could not have valued them more.
We used to make 100 pounds of sugar in our sugar camp and that was thought to be enough for one year's use in an ordinary family, it seemed to be enough for us.
Hope you enjoyed this step back in 'sugaring' time, some things change, some don't change much in 150 years.
Regards,
Chris