Moqua, an Indian squaw sat by her wigwam with her embroidery work while her husband’s moose meat lay in a pot of maple sap, cooking over the fire for supper. She became so engrossed in the project that she forgot to keep an eye on the food.
Finally Moqua’s husband, the Chief, returned home expecting a normal pot of roast moose for his repast, and found a new and wonderful gourmet food. His meat was surrounded by thick brown syrup. He was so delighted by this new creation that he informed his tribe that Kose-Kusbek had shown Moqua directly from heaven how to make syrup by boiling sap.
Soon Many Indians profited from her mistake. Using tomahawks and stone axes they inserted a piece of bark or a reed to convey sap into a container made of birch or elm bark. Later the filled buckets were emptied into a trough made of a hollow log and the sap was heated by fiery hot stones until the syrup was ready.
Pioneers quickly learned to make the syrup too. It was a great boon to their scanty larder. They used wooden spouts rather than reeds, caught the sap in buckets and boiled it in iron kettles. They called it Indian sugar or Indian molasses.
One more story brought to you by my Aunt Rosie. I would add to this lore a little tidbit that Aunt Rosie told to me about our own family. She said that when my grand-folks moved onto a cut over lumber camp, (Camp 18) her mother (my grandmother) made maple syrup by boiling maple bark. I never tried it but it’s an intriguing thought. http://www.dawncreations.net
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