Exploring the past world of maple syrup and maple sugar
I am happy to share a recently published article I researched and wrote which takes a deeper look into the origins of the maple creemee, the maple flavored soft-serve ice cream or ice milk treat that is popular in Vermont.
The article appeared in the Winter 2025 issue of the Vermont Maple Sugar Maker’s Association newsletter. You can read a PDF copy of the article by clicking on this link or on the adjacent image of the article.
I am happy to share that on the evening of April 23rd, 2025 in Rutland, Vermont, I will be presenting a public lecture on the history of the G.H. Grimm Manufacturing Company.
This special event is co-sponsored by the Rutland Free Library and the Rutland Historical Society. Although I have previously shared an article on this website about the history of the Grimm Company, this presentation features a deeper look at the Grimm Company and the Grimm family and presents the results of new and more extensive research into the Grimm story.
Of special note is that the lecture will be presented in the Nella Grimm Fox Room at the Rutland Free Library. The Nella Grimm Fox Room is named in honor of Nella Grimm Fox, the daughter of G.H. Grimm, who ran the Grimm Company for over 40 years following the death of her father. Upon her death in 1969, Nella Grim Fox left a substantial financial legacy to the Rutland Free Library which led to the public meeting room being named in her honor.
For more information see this link at the Rutland Free Library website.
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This presentation traces the origins and evolution of the G.H. Grimm maple syrup equipment company. Over its first one hundred years, the Grimm Company, with its signature Champion Evaporator, became the leading manufacturer of maple industry equipment in the United States and Canada. The storyline of the presentation follows the Grimm family and the Grimm Company from its start in Hudson, Ohio, to its relocation and settlement in Rutland, Vermont, and on to the opening of its branch operation to Montreal, Québec. New research presents a detailed look at the lives of the Grimm family in Ohio and Vermont and the impact of the Grimm Company in the history of the maple syrup industry.
Dr. Matthew M. Thomas is an independent researcher and is a leading expert on the history of the maple syrup industry. Dr. Thomas has written two maple history books, Maple King: The Making of a Maple Syrup Empire and A Sugarbush Like None Other: Adirondack Maple Syrup and the Horse Shoe Forestry Company. In addition, he shares his research and many published articles on the website www.maplesyruphistory.com.
This program is brought to you by the Rutland Free Library and Rutland Historical Society.
By Matthew M. Thomas
I am happy to share a recent article I wrote on the origins and unique history of the use of a round metal can for packing maple syrup in the province of Québec. Unlike the United States and most other Canadian provinces, where syrup was packed in rectangular shaped metal cans for many years, in Québec the use of a round can was introduced in the 1950s and has continued to be used ever since, eventually becoming an iconic cultural symbol identifed with Québec.
The article was published by Fédération Histoire Québec in Volume 30, Number 1 of their imagazine Historie Québec. As an article focused on a decidely Québecois topic, this article is written in French. You can download a PDF copy of the article at this link or by clicking on the image or the article above. Or you can view each of the three individual pages of the article below.
For those looking for an English version post about this research and history, please visit these earlier posts from this website:
A Maple Syrup Can Mystery: New Discoveries on the Beginnings of the Iconic Québec Can
Matthew M. Thomas
You can read my latest maple history contribution from the June 2024 issue of the Maple Syrup Digest newsletter at this link or by clicking on the adjacent image of the syrup bottle. The Maple Syrup Digest is the official quarterly publication of the North American Maple Syrup Council.
This article takes another look at the origins and development of the oval-shaped maple syrup bottle with little handle on the neck that is unique to the maple syrup industry. Some readers might recognize that I’ve previously written and posted an article on this website about the history of this unmistakable syrup bottle. This article presents an updated version of this research with a deeper look into where this bottle design came from and the 20th century evolution of glass bottles used for maple syrup.
You can read the article at this link or by clinking on the accompanying images.
The Summer 2024 newsletter of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association features an article written by me to launch a new regular feature in the newsletter called “The Maple History Corner.” I hope to contribute regular articles to the newsletter’s “Maple History Corner” and share bits and pieces of Vermont maple history.
Unlike my usual stories and historical vignettes, this particular article is more of a commentary and words of encouragement to Vermont sugarmakers to preserve and document their own personal maple histories.
You can read the article at this link or by clicking on the image to the left.
You can read my latest maple history contribution to the Minnesota Maple Syrup Producers’ Association June 2024 newsletter at this link, or by clicking on the image below.
This article looks at the role Minnesota played as the place where the commercial manufacture of reverse osmosis technology for the maple syrup industry got its start. In 1969, Dean Spatz created a Minnesota-based company called Osmonics, Inc. for the manfacture of reverse osmosis machines and membranes. Maple producers in the 1970s and 1980s gradually began to adopt the technology for concentrating maple sap in making maple syrup. As the only manufacturer at the time, syrup producers relied on Osmonics to help get reverse osmosis off the ground for the maple industry.
By Matthew M. Thomas
A great new, handsomely illustrated book has been published documenting maple syrup and sugar making as was carried out in Québec in years past. Titled, La route des sucriers: Quand on faissit les sucres en noir et blanc au Quebec, this paperback book is entirely in French and is the work of noted maple historian and sugarmaker Jean-Roch Morin, who hails from Saint-Zacharie, Québec. At 240 pages in length, La route des sucriers contains around two hundred rarely or never before published black and white photographs of maple sugaring related scenes. The images date from the late 1800s through the 1990s, with the majority dating to the first half of the 20th century.
I cannot emphasize enough my feeling that readers should not be intimidated by the book being in French. With the convenience of translation apps on our mobile devices and computers, it is quite simple to open the door to an entire world of maple history publications from Québec written in French, with this book as a wonderful place to start.
The format of the book is one image per page with accompanying descriptive and contextual text. The book is divided into six different chapters by covering the sugarhouse and the syrup maker, preparing for the season, gathering maple sap, making sugar and syrup, maple parties, and the end of the sugaring season. A nice feature of the book is a glossary of words related to syrup and sugar making gathered and defined by the author. Of course, the glossary is in French, but it always helpful to see and document the unique language of maple production.
This is the second maple history related book written by Jean-Roch Morin, with his first book being published in 2016 jointly in French and English with the title, Spouts, Patents and Sugar-Making Objects from Yesteryear. This book is published by Les Editions Conifére, a new and energetic publishing company out of Québec City that is interested in expanding their portfolio to include additional titles that share Québec and maple industry history.
In researching this book, Jean-Roch Morin spent many years visiting local historical societies, museums, libraries, and private collections across the Beauce region of Québec discovering previously unpublished and unknown photographs of maple sugaring activities in years past. The focus of the locations of the scenes in the images is primarily the Beauce region, but most of the scenes depicted could have been anywhere in the maple syrup producing region of Canada and the United States. Many of the scenes depicted are candid, unposed action scenes, taken in the moment in the sugarbush and at the sugar house. These are especially important in their capturing a moment in time, both from the technological and historical perspective but also in preserving the place and experiences of individuals and community of sugaring.
I have three personal favorites from the book: the photos that show the end of the year sap pail washing and drying, the photos showing the important use of horses and even dogs for pulling sap gathering sleds and tanks, and the photos of the sugar on snow gatherings at the sugarhouses.
Maple sugar and syrup making was hard forest and farm work to be sure, but it was also a kind of work that was unique in how it was also a part of a larger sense of local identity and cultural connectedness of the community. That truth is well represented in the pictures and text of this book. One can almost hear the laughter in the scenes of revelry and cheer and sugar on snow parties along with the flirtatious tradition of smearing soot from the bottom of the evaporator pan on the clean faces of partiers, especially the ladies. Other photos portray the variety of construction elements in sugarhouse construction, emphasizing the vernacular nature of these structures. The history and evolution of the technology and tools of sugaring are both directly and implicitly displayed and discussed in the photos and text.
The book starts off with a pair of prefaces, one written by maple educators Stéphane Guay and Edith Bonneau, publishers of the website Érable & Chalumeaux; and a second preface by yours truly, Matthew Thomas.
In all fairness and the spirit of full disclosure, Jean-Roch Morin is not only a professional colleague, but also a personal friend of mine. Therefore, I may be a bit biased, but I deeply enjoyed this book and am impressed with the effort that went into its creation. Jean-Roch Morin provides a short introductory chapter to set the stage for what he has assembled and described. In addition, the book also features a bibliography and lists of references that were important in researching and writing the book and directs readers where to go for more information.
Jean-Roch Morin was recently awarded Lés Prix du Patrimoine by the MRC Etchemins for his efforts at cultural and historical interpretation and dissemination with the publication of this book. The MRC is one of fifteen regional administrative units of government in Québec and each MRC conducts a competition every two years to recognize the efforts and important works of its residents to protect and promote the heritage of the province. As an indication of his tireless and valuable work in preserving history, this was the fourth time in the last ten years that Mr. Morin has been awarded Lés Prix du Patrimoine!
I encourage maple history fans to add this book to their libraries and make the effort to translate the French text. The book is an important record of maple sugaring in the past. At the very least, it is easy to appreciate, study, and learn from the amazing array of photographs assembled in this book.
The book can be ordered online at the Conifére website for shipment to both the Canada and the United States. Go to this link at the Conifére site to learn more. The cost of the book is listed as CAN$34.95 which equals about US$25.50, plus shipping costs.
By Matthew M. Thomas
The sugar devil, also known as a sugar auger or fruit lifter, is one of those sort of maple sugar related antiques that really catches your attention, both for the simple elegance of its design and symmetry and for its frightening appearance as some sort of medieval weapon or torture device. It should come as no surprise that sugar devils are highly desired by collectors of maple sugar related items.
Maybe it is just the attention grabbing name “sugar devil” that makes folks want to own something that feels a little bit taboo or dangerous. The equally popular names “sugar auger” or “fruit lifter” provide a bit of insight into how and for what these giant corkscrew-like tools were put to use. Sugar devils were used to break up the dense, dried, and hard sugar and fruit that was once packed tightly in casks, kegs, or boxes in much of the 19th century.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, maple sugar was often sold packed into wooden casks. When the sticky sugar had sufficiently dried, it formed a nearly impenetrable cement that required a strong tool to break up into smaller chunks that could then be further reduced into usable pieces for granulation or dissolving in water to make a syrup. Sticky, sugar-rich, dried fruit that was similarly packed in casks, required a powerful tool to permit access to manageable amounts when purchasing from a store or cooking at home.
For those wanting to learn more about sugar devils, a very useful guide to the varieties and patent history of different shapes and styles of sugar devils or fruit lifters has been put together by tool and corkscrew collector Bob Roger. Mr. Roger has kindly permitted me to share his most up to date version of this guide here, with the request that any use be purely for educational purposes.
You can view and download a PDF copy of Mr. Roger’s guide titled Fruit Lifters (a.k.a. Sugar Devils) by clicking on THIS LINK or by clicking on the image above. An earlier version of Mr. Roger’s guide was posted in 2007 on the website The Daily Screw, an interesting but no longer active website dedicated to the corkscrew collector.
By Matthew M. Thomas
You can read my latest maple history contribution to the December 2023 edition of the Maple Syrup Digest newsletter at this link or by clicking on the image of the article. The Maple Syrup Digest, it is the official quarterly publication of the North American Maple Syrup Council.
This article looks at the short ten-year history of a unique laboratory constructed in Burlington, Vermont by the United States Forest Service. Named in honor of Vermont Senator George D. Aiken, the lab was created for the purpose of conducting research and outreach on topics important to the growth and promotion of the maple syrup industry. Staffed with foresters, biologists, and economists, this lab focused its attention on improvements in marketing maple products and developing more efficient technologies and methods for processing sap and syrup.
You can read the article at this link or by clinking on the accompanying image.
By Matthew M. Thomas
Maple history fans might be interested in Lanark County Kitchen: A Maple Legacy from Tree to Table, a recently published book about maple sugaring families in Lanark County, Ontario.
Written by Arlene Stafford-Wilson, this 2023 book presents a series of short and concise histories of thirteen legacy maple producers, families that have been making maple products for many generations in Lanark County. Stafford-Wilson is the author of a number of books on life and times in Lanark County, with more information on those available at her website www.staffordwilson.com.
This pocket size book (4.75” x 8.0”) spans 165 pages and covers a range of sugaring families and stories from small homegrown hobbyists to the big names in the county, such as Wheeler’s Maple with their large sugarbush, pancake restaurant, and famous maple and logging museums. The book starts off with a few brief introductory chapters presenting basic details about maple sugaring, syrup grading, and syrup judging that serve as useful contextual materials for the later chapters and histories. There are no illustrations in the book, it is only text, but each family’s chapter includes one or two maple-related recipes that were provided by those families.
Each family history is as much a record of their local genealogy as it is a recounting of the history of their maple operation, with most of the families sharing a common thread of being the descendants of Irish or Scottish immigrants that arrived in Ontario in the early to mid-1800s. Another common thread in almost all the histories in the book is a retelling of the devastating effects and subsequent recovery from a severe ice storm in 1998, as well as a derecho wind storm in 2022.
Like the well-known Wheeler’s Sugar Bush, another notable chapter covers the story of Brien and Marion Paul’s sugaring operation. The late Marion Paul is an especially notable figure in Ontario maple history as the only woman from Ontario and the only producer from Lanark County in the International Maple Hall of Fame.
It is great to see the documentation and publication that highlights local maple sugaring stories and families. The one thing that surprised me in reading the book was no mention of Claudia Smith’s book When the Sugar Bird Sings: The History of Maple Syrup in Lanark County. Admittedly, When the Sugar Bird Sings was published 25 years ago; however, it is still very much worth finding a used copy and having on the maple history shelf in one’s library. It is not common that a single county in the United States or Canada has one book written specifically on the history of maple sugaring in that area, and now Lanark County has two! Stafford-Wilson’s Lanark County Kitchen adds another layer of detail to the history of Lanark maple sugaring, especially when combined with When the Sugar Bird Sings.
Individual copies of Lanark County Kitchen: A Maple Legacy from Tree to Table cost CAD$25.00 may be ordered from the United States and Canada by contacting Arlene Stafford-Wilson directly at – lanarkcountybooks@gmail.com.