{AMISH COMMUNITY NEWS} Vol. 4 No. 2
Sugaring - then and now
March 7, 2012
Old Time Sugaring Submitted by Linda Weaver
This literature was found amongst my father’s (Freeman Byler) belongings. Making maple syrup in Geauga County has been going on a long time. Several articles were dated 1893 to 1894.
Hello! My name is Joni Bender, age 13. I’m the boy who lives in the big house by William Bender (grandfather) who writes from Huntsburg. My mom wanted me to write a story to go with this picture. I can still faintly remember when we built our sugarhouse. 2004 was the first year we tapped and we had 200 taps. Last year we had 800 taps. We made 333 gallons of syrup. The first five years we took the sap up with the sled and horses. But that took too long, so we got a 1,000 feet of 1-inch pipe and a tank and set it up back in the woods and we loaded it off there. Then Dad fired up the pump motor and they’d go get another load while I sat and watched the tank. When it was empty, I shut off the motor. Meanwhile, someone in the sugarhouse fired the arch to cook the sap. I told you how we do it. Now I have to tell you what happened already. First I’m going to start with how cousin Robbie got a mud hole named after him. We were hauling wood for the sugarhouse with the sled and the ponies. Robbie was sitting on top of the load when they hit a bump. Robbie fell into the mud hole, the deepest one we have back there. A few other times somebody fell off the gathering sled, including Bill Bender. When I wrote this (Feb. 13), we haven’t tapped yet this year. I think we might have 800 taps again. It will be our first year to use all the bags. Next issue Plain Country– March 28. Submission deadline–Monday, March 12. Advertising deadline–March 24. Please send the information to share to Plain Country, P.O. Box 626, Middlefield, OH 44062, or call 440-632-0782 or fax to 440-834-8933. Subscriptions are available for $25 per year.