Tales of the Origins of Maple Syrup

Who decided that it would be a good idea to collect the "water" inside of maple trees and boil it down? How did that person know that the resulting product would be safe to consume, or better yet, delicious? Unfortunately, history has done a good job hiding the true origins of maple syrup. Yet still, there are several tales and stories of how maple syrup came to be.

Algonquin legend has it that one day the chief of the tribe returned after a hunting trip and threw his tomahawk ax into a sugar maple tree [1]. The warm spring weather caused sap from the maple tree to run out of the wound and drip from the ax into a birch bark container that contained moose meat that the chief's wife was about to cook [2]. Too lazy to get different water from the river, the wife cooked the meat in the sap water, and the thickening syrup formed around the meat [1]. Terrified that she had ruined the meal, the wife fled from the cooking, but her husband enjoyed the meal very much [2]. The syrup was called "sinzibuckwud," meaning "drawn from wood" and became a custom among the Algonquin people [1].

In the Iroquois nation, legend tells a different tail. One day, one of the youths in a tribe observed a squirrel as it ran up a maple tree and bit off a small branch, then proceeded to lick the sap off of the twig [2]. The young Iroquois broke off a stick an imitated the squirrel, surprised to find that the sap was sweet [2]. From the squirrel's mannerisms, the Iroquois discovered maple syrup.

For years, maple trees were tapped with wooden spigots and sap was collected into birch bark containers. Once Europeans witness the tastefulness of maple syrup, they introduced metal spigots and wooden buckets to provide for easier, more reliable collection. Over time, the maple syrup industry grew, and maple syrup and sugar become an important component of the upstate New York diet.


Sources:
[1] http://vermontmaple.org/about-us/history-of-maple/
[2] http://www.homesteadarts.org/maplelore.html