People occasionally ask me what are the best books to learn about the culture and history of maple syrup and I usually respond with the same three books. It is true that there are a wide variety of other books, articles, and reports that cover various aspects of maple history. But these are usually focused on a particular topic or geographic area, some of which are featured elsewhere in this blog. In contrast, these three books have a much greater breadth, are well-researched and well-written and, and give the average reader a bit more to chew on. The three books are – The Maple Sugar Book by Helen and Scott Nearing, published in 1950, Maple Sugarin’ In Vermont: A Short History by Betty Ann Lockhart, published in 2008, and Sweet Maple: Life lore & recipes from the sugarbush published in 1993 by James M. Lawrence and Rux Martin.
The Maple Sugar Book
Written by Helen and Scott Nearing, although it was primarily researched and written by Helen, tells the story of how one couple in the 1940s left the city for the Vermont woods, took up a simple homesteader’s life and learned the ways of living with the seasons, including maple sugaring in the springtime and sustainable organic farming all year round. Along the journey Helen became fascinated with the history and lore of maple sugaring, and finding no satisfactory book written on the topic, decided to write one herself. As a result, this book could be described as the first detailed and well-referenced study published on the history of maple sugar. The first third of the book begins by situating maple sugar in the broader context of sweeteners in our historical and modern culture. The book then moves to a survey of early historical accounts of Native American sugaring before launching into a chapter titled “The Early Settlers Make Syrup and Sugar”. This nicely referenced chapter traces the evolution of non-Indian sugaring from its most primitive forms in the 1600 and 1700s up through the early 1900s.
The middle portion of the book describes in great detail the process of running a sugarbush and the making and marketing maple syrup and maple sugar in the 1940s and 1950s in Vermont. By maple industry standards at the time, the Nearing’s maple operation was relatively state of the art, including the use of a metal pipeline system connecting dumping points in the sugarbush to sap collection tanks at a lower elevation.
The final portion of the book contains the Nearing’s thoughts and philosophy on work, sustainability, and living within one’s means and how and where maple sugaring fit into that equation for them.
It is interesting to consider that, while written in the 1940s and published in 1950, this book itself, in addition to the history it presents, is now something of an artifact and of historical interest.
To really understand the Nearing’s back to the land approach and the ins and outs of the operational side of their maple sugaring endeavor, one also needs to pick up their book Living the Good Life: How To Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World which was first published in 1954. This book explains the role and economic importance of the making and sale of maple syrup and maple sugar in their idealized, but not quite real, attempt at living a frugal and sustainable lifestyle.
Margaret O. Killinger’s 2007 biography of Helen Nearing titled The Good Life of Helen K. Nearing is also an important companion piece to understanding and explaining some of the otherwise unstated motivations and realities of the Nearing’s decision to get into maple sugaring and how they made it a success. Similarly, the 50th anniversary edition of The Maple Sugar Book, published in 2000 includes an epilogue by Greg Joly that provides additional context and back story on how The Maple Sugar Book came to be written in the first place and what became of the Nearing’s maple operation after they left Vermont for Maine in 1952.
Copies of this book are pretty easy to come by with many printings both in hardcover and paperback over the years, although, as mentioned above, the 50th anniversary edition has interesting additional information and commentary.
Maple Sugarin’ In Vermont
The most recent and the most thorough treatment of maple sugaring history is the book Maple Sugarin’ In Vermont: A Sweet History by Betty Ann Lockhart. Published by The History Press, his book is written from the perspective of Lockhart’s home state of Vermont as a central unifying theme, but let’s face it, when talking about maple history, Vermont was the center of the maple universe. Lockhart has been deeply involved in researching, writing about, and promoting maple syrup history since the early 1980s. In addition to this book, she along with her husband have written and produced a variety of articles, films and videos, and teaching materials, including a quality control manual for maple producers. She’s a very active member and contributor to the Vermont Maple Festival held each April in St. Albans. Suffice it to say, she knows the ins and out of the history of maple syrup making.
Presented in a more or less chronological fashion, the chapters cover a wide range of topics and major themes in the history of maple, including Native American sugaring, the evolution of sugaring technology, the beginnings of maple research and science, trade organizations and the promotion of maple products, and the effects of government regulations just to name a few. Close to my heart, since I wrote a book about the man and his legacy, is a chapter on the corporate giant George C. Cary.
One of the things I like most about the book, in addition to the great illustrations and accessible writing style, is that Lockhart provides footnotes with references for her narrative. All too often popular history books are written without sufficient or sometimes any reference to supporting documentation, and we are just supposed to accept their “story” at face value. This book, thankfully does not fall into that trap. This book is a must read for anyone even remotely interested in the history of maple syrup and maple sugar and is still in press and available online through The History Press and at other outlets.
Sweet Maple
While this book is not exactly heavy on the history side, it has a special place in my heart as one of the first books to introduce me to the broader culture and history of maple syrup and sugar. With its 8.5 x 11 inch size and excellent color photos and drawings, Sweet Maple: Life, lore & recipes from the sugarbush initially comes off as more of a coffee table style book. But don’t let that fool you. Vermont authors James M. Lawrence and Rux Martin bring a strong knowledge of the maple world to their work and were careful in their writing and research. Overall the book presents a broad cross section of the variety of people and topics of interest connected to maple. The chapter on the origins and history of sugarmaking is tightly presented, yet still wide-ranging.
Like with the Nearing’s book and the Lockhart book, Sweet Maple does the reader a service by providing a bibliography, historical timeline, helpful glossary of maple sugaring terms, and a now partially out-dated list of sources for maple museums, equipment dealers, syrup and candy sales, and publication sources. Of course, as is true of nearly every popular publications related to maple syrup, including the Nearing’s and Lockhart books, there is a collection of maple themed recipes, no doubt developed and tested by recipe experts. Published in 1993, Sweet Maple has been out of print for many years but can still be found in used bookstores and online at sources like www.abe.com and www.amazon.com.
In a future post I will share some of my favorite books on maple syrup history written from a local and regional focus.