History

Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut

An Iroquois legend tells one story of how maple sugaring may have begun.

Early each day before the rest of his family awoke, Chief Woksis would get up, pick up a birch bark pail from under the large tree near where they slept and walk to the river to draw a heavy pail of fresh water for the family for the day. He put the pail back under the tree where his wife would find it when she awoke and picked up his tomahawk and headed off to hunt. He thought, "Maybe today I will catch a large deer to feed my family."

Chief Woksis came back at the end of the day and his wife said, "What did you catch for our supper?" He had to tell her the hunt did not go well and he had nothing to offer them. His wife cooked up some root vegetables in the water and that was all they had to eat.

The next day Chief Woksis got the pail again, walked to the river, returned it full under the tree, grabbed his tomahawk and headed off to hunt. He thought, "Maybe today I will catch a large deer to feed my family."

Chief Woksis came back at the end of the day and his wife said, "What did you catch for our supper?" He had to tell her the hunt had not gone well and he again, had nothing to offer them. His wife cooked up some greens in the water and that was all they had to eat.

The next day Chief Woksis got the pail, walked to the river, returned it full, grabbed his tomahawk and headed off to hunt. He thought, "Maybe today I will catch a large deer to feed my family."

Chief Woksis came back at the end of the day and his wife said, "What did you catch for our supper?" Frustrated he told her the hunt had not gone well and again he had nothing to offer him. Angry that he could not find something to feed his now very hungry family, he threw his tomahawk into the side of the large tree and went to bed. His wife told the children there was nothing to eat.

The next morning Chief Woksis woke up very early and moved noislessly about. He removed his tomahawk from the tree and went hunting determined to find food for his hungry family. The spirits were looking kindly on him this warm spring day and he caught a large, fat deer. Excitedly he ran home carrying the deer which felt as light as a feather and handed it to his wife for cooking. She cut up the meat and cooked it using the pail of water from under the tree. Excitedly everyone started eating to fill their empty stomachs..

Chief Woksis said, "How did you cook this meat? It is different. It tastes sweet."

His wife answered, "I cooked it as I always do, in the full pail of water from the river you brought me this morning."

Chief Woksis jumped up and exclaimed, "Oh, No! I was in such a hurry to get out early and find food for my family, I never filled the pail today."

Curious, the chief and his wife went to the tree and realized that right above where the pail always sat was the cut in the tree from where he had thrown his tomahawk the night before. From the gash there was a watery looking liquid dripping which must have filled the pail. They put out the tips of their fingers and caught a drop and tasted it to find out it was a sweet tasting sap that flowed. The sap from the Maple Sugar tree was what was in their pail, not water!

More Sweet Notes:

	It is known from research that both the Native American’s and the Early Settlers produced maple syrup in United States and Canada as long ago as the 1600’s.
	Developments of commercially produced equipment, such as manufactured spiles, buckets, and Evaporator Pans became available in the 1800’s.
	Experimentation with sap tubing collection systems were developed the early 1900’s, but “modern” plastic sap tubing was uncommon until the 1960’s and 1970’s.
	Reverse Osmosis technology was implemented for the concentration of maple sap as early as the 1970’s.
	An ongoing partnership between equipment manufacturers, research centers, and maple syrup producer’s help to ensure many releases of new equipment and practices that are more labor and energy efficient.