Making Maple Syrup

As we were growing up on the farm and February was coming to a close our minds went to an exciting time of the year.  The trees were changing the color from the stark black to a more gray color and there were subtle signs of spring approaching.  Daddy and Grandpa Gerow knew it was time to grab the bit and brace, the spiels, hooks and sap buckets and go the sugar bush.  It was time to tap the trees!  Daddy usually used the horses for this project as there would still be snow on the ground.  Grandpa had a nice little sugar bush (a group of sugar maple trees) on his property that we always tapped and we gathered that sap, put it in milk cans, and brought it to our house to be boiled with our sap.

Our sugar bush was on the Muck Road on land that Daddy owned there and also on the Rice Place that Daddy owned as well, but that was a little harder to get to.  Our sugar shanty was what we called the old cellar next to where I now live.  It was a neat little place and there was the neatest old velvet settee in there that Jerry and I used to take a nap on while we would sit with Daddy while the sap would boil.

Daddy would harness the team and use the stone bolt to carry all of his supplies and head out to the sugar bush.  He would use the bit and brace to drill to drill a hole in the tree, then drive the spile into the tree and hang the hook over the spile and hang the bucket on the hook.  The sap would drip from the spile into the bucket.  The temperature would have to get above freezing during the day for the sap to run and if the wind was out of the south the sap wouldn't run.  Once the trees were all tapped the real work began.  All of the sap had to be gathered and taken to the sugar shanty where it had to be boiled down to maple syrup.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.  We used milk cans to haul the sap from the sugar bush to the sugar shanty. It was hard work to lift all of those buckets off the trees, empty them into another bucket, then carry it to the wagon, and dump it into the milk cans.  Once back to the sugar shanty the big heavy milk cans had to be carried down the stairs and dumped into the boiling pan.  Many nights, Mother would stay with the fire while Daddy did the milking, then we would all stay for the evening, until the syrup was ready.  We would fill containers with the syrup and let the fire go out.  Mother would bake fresh biscuits and we enjoyed them with butter and fresh hot maple syrup.  Yummy!

Daddy and Al

After Al and I moved back to Pennsylvania in 1981 my brother and Dad wanted to build a new sugar shanty, so a plan was devised to purchase an old barn from William and Stella Irwin in Catlin Hollow,  They lived beside of the Catlin Hollow Cemetery.  We all worked at tearing the old barn down and hauling it down to Jerry's house on hay wagons.  Once it was all hauled and sorted the building was started.  A very fine sugar shanty was built at Jerry's house, once completed, it was painted barn red to match the rest of Jerry's out buildings.  Then the guys had to cut fire wood to keep the fire going to make the syrup.  A lot of the scrap lumber was also burned up at the same time.  Tim McConnell made a new sap pan and we purchased a hygrometer to make sure we were boiling our sap the correct length of time.  We also purchased specialized containers for our product.  We were ready for February to arrive.

Francis Spencer, Al, and Daddy

When it came time for us to accomplish the task that we had done as kids, it was sure good to have Daddy there to guide us along.  Jerry was still employed, so Daddy helped to get us started.  Jerry had a pair of Belgium work horses that he dearly loved to work with, so sap was hauled with horse and wagon just as it was when we were kids.

As a side note, Jerry and Al had worked to get the barn ready before Jerry got his work horses.  Once the stalls were all ready for the big horses, Jerry brought them in to the stalls with the new cement floors, but the horses ears rubbed the ceiling!  Oh, how we laughed!  I, being a smart aleck, made Jerry a "ear lowering kit" which I think contained some large rubber bands for the ears! My brother got that "funny" look on his face, you know the one that says, “Yea, you got me!”

Francis Spencer, Al, and Daddy

The horses pulled the wagon which had a holding tank in it to carry the sap gathered from the trees back to the sugar shanty.  Joanne and I helped the guys gather sap each morning and enjoyed doing it.  Francis Spencer got into the act also.  He was always eager to help out when there was a project going on, especially if it had to do with horses.

One afternoon, when the sap was really running, Daddy thought he and Al should take the tractor and a barrel and go up on the hill to gather some sap.  As Al told the story, they were going up the hill on the Ford tractor with a barrel full of sap. The tractor was off balance from the extra weight and nearly rolled over.  Al jumped off in one direction and the barrel of sap went in the other direction. It scared the heck out of both, Al and Daddy.  The barrel went all the way down the hill, almost to the creek before it stopped.  I am not sure if they ever told Jerry.

Al, Francis Spencer, and Daddy

Daddy would always want Al to take some of our eggs to the sugar shanty, so they could cook them in the sap as it boiled.  Eggs hard boiled in sap are a tasty treat!

At the end of the season, Joanne would always take the last of the syrup to the house and finish cooking it down there.  She would often make maple cream and maple candy.  We all used maple syrup to cook with throughout the year and had some to sell.  Once the trees began to bud the sap would be too dark and that would be the end of making syrup.  The taps had to be pulled and all of the equipment cleaned and put away for the next year.  By then we had probably seen a robin, or a flock of wild geese, and lots of what I hated the most, mud.  Spring was definitely in the air!  

Christmas - The Early Years

The first Christmas I can remember is one when I was very small.  The reason that I remember it so well is because I have scars on my left hand to remind me of it.  Mother told me that I reached for a bulb and it broke in my hand and cut my third finger deeply and burned it as well.  She kept my hand bandaged until it healed, but it still left a scar.

Daddy would always cut our Christmas tree on our farm.  Often he would find the perfect tree while he was out hunting and remember where it was.  Mother always liked to have ground pine to decorate with and Daddy would bring that home in his hunting jacket to her to use.  He would also bring home mountain laurel, pine boughs, hemlock boughs, and red berries to fill the plant boxes.  We always tried to do the plant boxes before they froze, that way the greens would stay nice all winter long.  We would hang an assortment of evergreen boughs on the doors tied with a red ribbon.  In the kitchen there was a special wreath that was placed at the kitchen window.  It had an electric candle in it, I always thought it was really special, as the wreath was a red velvet material, of course over the years it faded, but it was still a favorite of mine.  Perhaps that is where I got my love of candles in the windows.

In the living room, on the piano, sat a plastic "Frosty the Snowman" with a bubble light in his hand. Mother bought it the year that I started school in 1948. It was another favorite of mine.  I still have it and it is the first decoration that I put out every year.
 

Our Christmas tree was usually placed in the little living room in the early years, as that is where we spent our time.  We didn't go into the big living room until after we got television.  Our little living room was a cozy room, off of the kitchen with a day bed up against one wall, the console radio, Daddy's gray leather chair, a green upholstered chair with wooden arms (that I now have), a rocking chair, and smoking stand.  The room was carpeted with a deep red flowered carpet.  We later got a piano and it was placed in this room.  Jerry and I used the piano bench to play our board games on. The room was well lit with an overhead light and the end tables had lamps as well.  I also remember a light on the wall.  This room had a huge walk in closet and we kept our games, card table and chairs in it.  This was the only closet there was in the house, so Mother and Daddy kept their good clothes in there also.

Our Christmas tree was usually long needled eastern pine decorated with colored electric light bulbs and glass ornaments that were made by Corning Glass Company in Wellsboro, PA.  I still have several of them.  Krista has several that her Grandpa Bryant gave to her that were made at the Wellsboro Plant, a treasure!  We used icicles to complete the decorations.  It was a sight to behold that first night to come into the living room after supper and sit there and look at that beautiful tree with all of the lights turned off.  Sometimes Jerry and I would make snowflakes to put on the tree or to make red and green paper garland to add to the tree too.

We were allowed to open one package on Christmas Eve which was always handmade flannel pajamas.  We would go take a bath, put on our new pajamas, go to bed and wait for Santa.  We could never go into see what Santa had brought until Daddy came back from taking the milk to the milk plant and had his breakfast. Jerry and I thought he ate the biggest breakfast of his life on Christmas!!

Kathy and Connie Hazelton

After all the packages were opened, it was soon time to go to Grandpa and Grandma Gerow's house.  All of the Gerow family would meet there for Christmas dinner and to exchange presents.  This was one of the very few times that we were allowed to go into the Parlor.  They would have a tree decorated very similar to our tree.  Grandpa would cut his tree in his woods.  The picture that I have included is one that shows Connie Hazelton and me in front of the tree. I think it was taken in 1950.  The adults would exchange names; however, they would buy for all of the kids.  Aunt Eloise was a school teacher and she would often times buy me a book and that always delighted me, as I loved to read as a very young age.  Mother often read to Jerry and me.

It's terrible, but I don't remember any really great Christmas, I usually got a doll, which is what I always wanted, and later a typewriter. More than anything I remember all of the preparation to get ready for the holiday and all of the fun things we did.  Mother always made sea foam candy, fudge, and cookies of all kinds.

  We went Christmas caroling, had parties, but the best was the Sunday school program.  We practiced for the whole month of December and I loved it.  Fred Smith was my Sunday school teacher and he was in charge of the program.  We did plays, learned poems and acted out the Nativity. Everyone in the neighborhood was involved in our church and what a wonderful time it was.  My Mother played the piano accompaniment for all of the songs that were sung, so she was busy learning her part too, but she loved it as much as we did.

Daddy played Santa one year.  Jerry and I didn't even know it!  Every parent brought a present for their own children which Santa passed out along with a box of hard candy with a chocolate drop in the top for everyone.  That was a real treat!  That box of candy served as cough drops for the whole winter, Mother always put her box away as she knew someone would need it later and she would be right.

Goodwin's Hillside Farm Tourist Home - 1947

Goodwin's Hillside Farm Tourist Home - 1947
Kathy

In the 1940’s tourist’s homes were popular in the rural areas and there were several in our area.  One was The Fuller Rest which was Davy Fuller's aunt and uncle, Otis and Beulah. It was a beautiful home with four little cottages behind the main house.   Visitors loved to walk down the Catlin Hollow Road and enjoy the rural neighborhood.  In fact, one of the couples, Mr. and Mrs. Brink, fell so in love with the area that Mr. Brink coaxed my father into selling him an acre of land.  He built a lovely home just beyond the bridge.  They proved to be a wonderful addition to our neighborhood.

In 1947, Mother and Daddy decided that they would open up their home to summer visitors.  Mother had always kept a very clean home with everything in its place, the yard was always kept up and she and Daddy enjoyed flowers and took great pleasure in their flower beds with many blooming flowers and plant boxes.

I have lovely memories of windows being open with a gentle breeze blowing the white sheer curtains, the aroma of freshly baked bread, the smell of furniture polish, sunshine through the windows on shiny floors.  No wonder people liked to come from the city and stay on the farm.

Daddy and Mother
Buddy, the dog

Mother advertised in the Rural New Yorker Newspaper and the reservations came in.  When I think back on it now, it was an undertaking, as summer was a busy time.  Daddy was busy doing the haying, a huge job in itself.  He was doing it by himself with only the horses and old Fordson tractor.  Jerry and I were three and four years of age and too young to be of any help.  Guests would stay for a week at a time.  Sometimes, Daddy would allow them to go with him to get a load of hay and they always enjoyed experiencing the farm life first hand.  Now days we would think of the legal aspects of that, but then they were just eager to please their guests.

I remember several of our guests that came back year after year.  Mr. and Mrs. Wolf from Hackensack, NJ, the McCarrin Family from Ohio, they had a son named Billy and he got poor Jerry in trouble more times than one.  He was older than Jerry and set up my poor brother time after time.  It took Jerry a while to realize what was happening.  I think finally Daddy said something to Mr. McCarrin and it eased up a bit. We had a dog named Buddy that knew “sic ‘em”; Billy found that out and told Buddy to “sic ‘em” to the cows.  Daddy thought it was Jerry, if I remember correctly I think Jerry got a spanking for it, one of the very few he ever received and it wasn’t even his fault.

Then there was Mr. and Mrs. Bair from New York City.  I remember the story Daddy told about having the pleasure of introducing Mr. and Mrs. Wolf to Mr. and Mrs. Bair and Mr. Wolf stated he didn’t know if he should bark or growl, everyone thought that was pretty funny…a real ice breaker!

Daddy and guests

Mother and Daddy always had a large garden and the guests always enjoyed fresh vegetables.  Often times, it would be time to put up one vegetable or another for the coming winter when the guests were with us. They would enjoy snipping green beans or whatever needed to be done with Mother.  She would fix them a dish to work from and they would sit on the glider on the front porch and snip the green beans, shell peas, or whatever needed to be done. They felt like they were helping her and they were.  Mrs. Wolf liked to can and she would help Mother fill the the jars.  Mother always had a pressure cooker and that took up two burners on her stove, so we always had an oven dinner on the evening she canned.  Sometimes we would have salads, and cold cuts, if it was an extremely hot day.  The food was always good and lots of it.  The guests loved it all.  Sometimes, they wanted to be just with us, as a family and others wanted to be by themselves.  Mother and Daddy just went with the flow.

Jerry, Daddy, and Kathy

This was before automatic washing machines. Mother had a wringer washer; we washed in the bathroom and drained the washer into the bathtub. I remember helping her do the sheets after some of the guests left and turned to get something, when I did, my braid got caught in the wringer! I screamed and she shut the machine off just in time to save me.  It sure did pull!!  I had never had my hair cut and I always wore my hair in long braids at that time.

Mother had percale sheets. I never thought anything about that until I was in high school, when a girl friend told our class that she always liked to come to our house to sleep, because we had percale sheets!  Our sheets were hung on the line, as were the rest of our clothes and they smelled so good.  Daddy had the clothes lines so the north and south wind blew them, everything was always soft…no fabric softener back then.

If I remember correctly, a couple of neighborhood ladies helped Mother with the extra cleaning, Jeannie Gilland and Alice Edwards.  Jeannie, told me in later life that Mother was not easy to work for.  That didn’t come as any surprise to me, Mother expected everything to be clean and spotless!

I don’t know how many years they continued with the Tourist Home, but I do have pictures that go up to 1954.  Perhaps that is when motels started becoming more popular.