The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-01-31
Pioneers Of Iowa Recall When This
New England Product Was
Also Made in
Iowa.
MIGHT DO IT THIS YEAR
McGresor Woman Suggests That it
Might Help to Win the War
and Urges People
Doing 1t.

III lew weeks the sap Will De run
ming again and maple sugar time
will be here. 1t is fine suggestion
that maple sugar be made this year,
as it was made in the days OF the
pioneers, 20 as me only
kind of sugar that they had. There
were many famous sugar groves and
sugar camps in southeastern Iowa in
former times, and doubtless there
are many now living who are quite
familiar with the production of
maple syrup and maple sugar.
Help win the war by making
maple sugar this spring" is the sug-
| gestion of Mrs. Dan Davis, a Nc
/, Gregor pioneer There is still much
hard maple along the streams and on
the hills in Clayton county and other
parts of eastern Iowa. Some maple
sugar is made on the farms every
year, but by no means as much as
| could be if all the maple trees were
Communicated for sap.
Mrs. Davis tells of the days when
| the only sugar Iowa housewives had
was made in Iowa from the naples.
| She was born in Clayton county, sew
enty-five years ago and was ten
years old before she saw her first
brown sugar, and grown woman
| before she tasted white sugar yet"
| says she, 1--WE had no lack of sweets.
| The woods with their naples and
| bee trees gave us an abundance Of
maple sugar and wild honey, the
most delicious sweets in the world"
March was the sugar month and
every pioneer family was busy day
| and night harvesting the years sup
! ply. Men, women and children all
had their part. Nowadays, pals and
cans are used to catch the sap, but
in frontier days they were minus
quantity and troughs of Eastwood
was cut down and sawed into lengths
of about two and one-half feet. These
pieces were split in half and hollow.
4 ed out with an adze, making troughs
that would hold a gallon to two gal
Ions of sap. Sugar spiles" were
made of elderberry, as it had a pith
inside which could be pushed out,
making a hollow tube. These spiles
were driven into the trees and the
sap run through them to the troughs.
When the sap was running, a daily
trip was made through the woods
with an OK and sled with barrel
on it and the sap brought to the
sugar camp near the pioneers cabin.
Here the big iron kettle was swung
over the fire from stakes driven in
| the ground. The first sap was the
! best and the sugar was made from
it. AS soon as the syrup began to
gronulate it was stirred constantly,
so that instead of hardening, soft,
! fine sugar resulted. Later hard sugar
was made, and from the last sap,
after the trees had begun to bud,
the maple syrup was made.
| The sugar season was a time of
] hard work, for it was cold slushy,
windy weather, but there was fun,
too. The young people gathered
evenings at the different camps to
frolic in the glow Of the fire in the
woods and the feast on warm sugar.
| 1Stirrfng off parties" they called
them and they were even more popu-
lar than the spelling bees.
. Sometimes the Winnebago Indians
came to the sugar camps and traded
the settlers saddles of venison for
! sugar.
In the fall of the year wild honey
was gathered. The bee trees were
| located by burning a comb Of honey
in the woods. The smell of burning
honey attracted the bees and they
would light on the comb and, having
the bee trees. The pioneers by fol-
lowing their coufse located the honey
storehouses. There was no need to
spare the ak in those days and as
soon as the bee tree was discovered
it was cut down. Sometimes a tub
full or honey was gathered from
single tree, the combs hanging two
and a half feet long in the hollow.
Wild plums, crab apples and grapes
were ripe about the time Of the honey
gathering in quantities of these were
put down by the pioneer housewives
in Jars covered with wild honey.
There was no wheat flour in those
first years in the woods and the pio-
neers lived on hot breads, principally
corn dodgers and buckwheat cakes.
made from corn and buckwheat grown
on the little patches Of breaking in
the woods. With these, maple syrup
and Wild honey were served and