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Maple Sugaring
Maple Sugaring
KEEPING IT REAL IN NEW ENGLAND
• • • • • •
David K. Leff
Wesleyan University Press • Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
© 2015 David K. Leff
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by April Leidig
Typeset in Monotype Bell by Copperline Book Services
Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative.
The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Leff, David K., author.
Maple sugaring: keeping it real in New England / David K. Leff.
pages cm.—(Garnet books)
ISBN 978-0-8195-7569-2 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8195-7570-8 (ebook)
1. Maple sugar industry—New England. 2. Maple sugar—New England. I. Title. II. Series: Garnet books.
HD9119.M32U54 2015
338.1'74972280974—dc23 2014048354
5 4 3 2 1
All recipes included in this volume were published in The Maple Cookbook: Connecticut Style, compiled by the Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut and edited by Jane Worthington (July 2012). Used with permission.
Cover photograph of sap collection tubing by David Leff
Contents
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Time, Space, and the Special Theory of Maple Relativity • 13
Hot Rocks and Bubbling Cauldrons • 63
One Taste and You’re in the Snowy Woods • 119
The Sweet Experience of Agritainment and Marketing • 131
Family, Community, Tradition • 153
Hold Tight and Pray: Character and Place • 189
Preface
• • • • • • • • • • • •
MAPLE SUGARING is a New England icon. Galvanized buckets hanging from trees above snow-covered ground and rising steam from an evaporator are among the most enduring, endearing, and engaging images of the region. A substantial amount of syrup is produced in other states, and by far most comes from Canada, but in the public mind New England is the maple capital. The following pages explore why.
Sugaring highlights and fosters a surprisingly wide range of classic New England characteristics. Among them are respect for deep history, Yankee ingenuity, connection to nature, affection for rural simplicity, sustainability, a strong work ethic, determination to prevail, hope for the future, savvy marketing, self-reliance, coping with variable weather, and delighting in homey foods. And while much nostalgia and some hyperbole are embedded in such attributes, they also remain remarkably viable. They are qualities from which readers in all walks of life and living anywhere in the world can draw inspiration.
There are many fine books on maple sugaring. Most of them are histories, personal chronicles, or about how to make syrup. This volume is not a history, a memoir, or a guide to producing a product. It partakes of some of these features, but more than detailing the past, the routines of sugaring, and the process of making syrup, I try to capture, however imperfectly, the indomitable spirit of those who tap and boil sap. Through my own experiences making syrup and the lively stories of many sugarmakers throughout the six New England states, I examine the sugaring way of life. I wanted to know what inflamed the passion of sugarmakers despite the hard work, yearly gamble with the weather, and other challenges.
Through the eyes of those who make syrup, scientists, government officials, equipment dealers and manufacturers, educators, and others, this book looks at community and family life, the advance of technology, heritage values, innovative products and nutrition, environmental issues like climate change and invasive species, marketing, the joy of trees and forests, agriculture as entertainment, and other matters. Doing so paints an impressionist-like picture of a landscape and its people.
Few activities so tightly bind culture and nature as maple sugaring. Rarely does an undertaking fuse the individuals involved so perfectly with the territory in which they live. With necessary conditions limited to a small corner of the planet, maple syrup is a true marker of place.
So long as sugarmakers inspire curious people to tap trees in their backyards or down the street, and children of all ages stand wide-eyed watching sap boil, maple syrup will embody the essence of New England. Join me discovering a labor of materiality and myth, space and time, muscle and soil, sweat and sweetness. New horizons beckon from a time-honored process.
Maple Sugaring
| • • • • • | Maple Passion | • • • • • |
“IS IT REAL MAPLE SYRUP?” That’s my first question in an unfamiliar restaurant when I order pancakes, perhaps with a side of bacon and a couple of bull’s-eye eggs. Not long ago, I perched myself on a stool in a silvery train-car-style eastern Massachusetts diner circa 1950 where the menu promised old-fashioned, home-style blueberry waffles. Perhaps not as good as what I could make in my own kitchen, but I was away from home and hungry. Besides, where better to have old-timey comfort food than a venerable eatery with gleaming stainless accents and terrazzo floors. “For an extra buck you get maple made just a few miles away in the next town. Otherwise it’s the fake stuff—Aunt Jemima, I think,” the ponytailed waitress said. I was