Maple Sugar Time

The farmers here make their own maple sugar in March when the heat of the sun melts the snow and at night hard frost, the maple trees will run a pail full of sap during the heat of the day. With a three-quarter of an inch Auger they bore about one half inch into the tree, a little more than through the bark, and with a gouge make a little cut under the hole and put a little piece of pine board into the cut projecting out from the tree so that the sap will run along the board and drop into a block of pine which is cut out so that it will hold a pail full of sap.

They carry the sap to a place where they boil it into molasses in large boilers, then turn the molasses into a smaller kettle, then boiling it until it crystalizes, they then pour it into something that is wider at the mouth than at the bottom (such as a basin) until it cools, then tumbling it out when it is a firm lump of sugar, equal to any Muscavado Sugar, and as clear in colour.

David Gibson of Markham Mills, 1827. Local History Collection, Richmond Hill Public Library